Residents in Springfield, Ohio, are sounding the alarm over illegal immigration in their community as Breitbart News revealed that an illegal alien is accused of causing a school bus accident that left 11-year-old Aiden Clark dead on his first day of school.
Hermanio Joseph, a 35-year-old illegal alien from Haiti, has been formally charged with aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of Aiden Clark, who was on his way to his first day of school when his school bus was hit and ultimately overturned.
According to police, Aiden Clark was killed after being ejected from the bus. Joseph’s bail was increased to $150,000 this week. Joseph arrived at the United States-Mexico border in August 2022 and was released into the U.S. interior after being given a Notice to Appear (NTA).
Early last week, residents attended a city council meeting to express their anger, disgust, sadness, and concerns to local elected officials. A number of residents expressed outrage over the arrival of thousands of Haitian illegal aliens like Joseph in their community even as Mayor Warren Copeland sought to repeatedly interrupt them.
“I watched them come in on buses … I don’t know how they got them here and I don’t know who is responsible,” one woman said. “Did we become a sanctuary city? The people want to know.”
Elected officials said multiple times that the city is not a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. Some residents said they want to see a referendum on their local ballot to clarify that Springfield is not a sanctuary city.
“There are people who are here who are not native Springfielders … the disenfranchisement of people who were born here, have lived here, have raised their kids, have lived here for 30+ years, and I’m one of them, and we’re feeling disrespected,” the woman said.
Another woman took to the podium to say that her grandchildren were on the school bus with Aiden Clark.
“I’m not only here for [my grandchildren], I’m here for every child that was on that school bus,” the grandmother said. “… what are we going to do to stop this? … how many more children are going to have … to die or be hurt? My grandchildren will probably go through counseling for quite some time.”
“If it was your child … I would be pounding down the door saying ‘What are we doing?’ … it needs to be, if you break the law, you’re going back,” another woman said.
According to multiple residents who spoke, two Haitian illegal aliens were involved in crashes following the fatal school bus accident.
“We have kids that live in our neighborhoods,” one man told the council, complaining that Haitian illegal aliens are driving the wrong way down many streets in town on a daily basis. “Enough is enough.”
Other residents said the issue of illegal immigration goes beyond crime. Their other concern is the cost of housing and rents as landlords seek to take advantage of more demand by raising prices significantly — pricing out locals.
“We cannot afford it,” a woman said, explaining that her rent is being raised as a result of the arrival of Haitian illegal aliens and out-of-state landlords’ cash-grab scheme.
“Are we just letting these landlords take advantage of these people and charge them all this rent and raise our rents?” a man asked the council. “… I’m saying it is unfair to them as well.”
One resident with a local nonprofit said the illegal immigration to Springfield specifically from Haiti is wreaking havoc on their limited resources. In one anecdote, she said that translation costs for the nonprofit totaled $4,000 in 2018 but by last year, the costs had jumped to $344,000.
“This is not sustainable,” she said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
