SIDNEY — The Shelby County Republican Party held an open forum at the beginning of their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday at Calvary United Baptist Church to discuss immigrants from Haiti, a topic that has dominated national and local news since former President Trump brought it up in a debate last week.
The Party invited former Springfield-area state representative Kyle Koehler to speak on the topic at its Meet a Candidate Night earlier this month and invited local officials to Tuesday’s meeting to address if any Haitian immigrants have settled in Shelby County.
The Shelby County Republican Party posted on its Facebook page local elected officials would speak about “Springfield’s (and our) Haitian immigrant crisis.” Springfield, which is the city Trump referenced last week when he talked about since-debunked claims of Haitians eating pets, has an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians who have immigrated since about 2020.
Several dozen area residents attended Tuesday’s meeting to discuss the impact of immigration in Shelby County. Shelby County Republican Party chairman Dan Cecil said it was one of the largest crowds a Party meeting has drawn.
Shelby County commissioner Julie Ehemann was the first to speak on the topic.
“As the entity that supplies a lot of the services to the community that we’re mandated to by the state of Ohio, I just wanted to let you know what some of our concerns are from what we have seen,” Ehemann said.
She described how the tuberculosis treatment budget for Shelby County was running low at the beginning of the year. There isn’t much of a budget for it because of how few cases Shelby County has seen. This raised concern for the commissioners.
After discussing with Job and Family Services and the Health department, it was discovered that the nine cases of tuberculosis were all immigrants.
“They’re not necessarily Haitian, not going to say they’re all Haitian, but they are immigrants in our community.” Ehemann said.
Ehemann said that most of the immigrant population in Shelby County are from Africa, specifically Senegal.
“I did reach out to JFS to see if (Tina Hooks) had any clue how many Haitians have settled in our community. She was able to tell me that there are currently 85 cases with them, that’s means that somebody’s gone in and spoken to someone about receiving some sort of benefit,” Ehemann said.
The last point Ehemann made to the group was about how Shelby County Veterans Services has been overwhelmed with phone calls expressing frustration for work that the VA is doing for the immigrant and migrant population. She wanted to reiterate that Shelby County Veterans Services are not associated with the VA.
“They have fielded some very angry phone calls this past week, which has kept them from doing their real jobs, serving our community, so please do not think that our Veterans Services is the VA,” Ehemann said.
Sheriff Jim Frye also spoke at the meeting.
“I don’t have all the answers. I’m not an expert on this, but what I can tell you is what I know.” Frye said.
He brought up a friend of his who works for ICE who told Frye “Don’t trust them. They’re bad. They’re bad people.”
“I told Chief Mark (McDonough), who is the Sidney chief, I said you guys go out there, get a hold of these people and arrest them. Bring them. I’ll figure out if they’re legal,” Frye said.
“President Trump did not lie at that debate when he said the Haitians are eating cats. If you want, I can show you body cam footage. It wasn’t in Springfield, it was in Canton, where they caught a lady standing over a cat, had skinned it and was eating it without cooking it. They found her with cat hair in her mouth,” Frye said.
“Is she Haitian?” a crowd member asked.
“I believe so,” Frye said.
The (Canton) Repository published an article on Sept. 10 which reported the woman who was recorded by police body camera footage in the Aug. 16 incident with the cat is an Ohio native. She was charged with cruelty to companion animals.
After Ehemann and Frye shared the information they had, the floor was opened to questions from the people in attendance.
Questions ranged from asking for clarification on the definition of TPS to asking if any immigrants or migrants would be able to vote in the upcoming election.
One person asked how the immigrants get to Sidney and someone in the audience mentioned “unmarked vans.” Dan Cecil, the head of the Board of Elections, encouraged people in attendance to get video footage of these vans and report them to the police.
“I have heard stories of a white van coming in and dropping off eight or 10 people then driving away through traffic like a madman. If you can catch video of that, please get it, get it to the Sheriff, get it to the police department, somebody who can do something about it,” Cecil said.
The conversation made a shift from the Haitian people themselves to how people in this community can make change. Cecil encouraged everyone to vote, make sure to be registered to vote, and get others who aren’t registered to do so.
“The enemy in this situation is the federal government, and we need to find ways to take the fight to the federal government, as opposed to the people on the ground,” Cecil said.
At the close of the discussion, Cecil encouraged everyone to go to a town hall hosted by the Shelby County Patriots Association from 7-9 p.m. on Oct. 2 at the Shelby County Fairgrounds Beige Building.
Reach Sidney Daily News reporter Anna Edmiston at 937-538-4825.
