Springfield resident says roads are like 'Escape from New York' after Haitian migrants overrun town

Springfield, Ohio resident Mark Sanders detailed Thursday how the influx of tens of thousands of migrants has left a devastating impact on his community's small population.

Sanders told Fox News host Jesse Waters that about 30,000 Haitians have come to Springfield over the past two years, leading to a housing, jobs and healthcare crisis for the city's 60,000 residents. 

A big problem, he says, is the impact on the roads and driving: "Our roads are like it's like ‘Escape from New York’… You don't know if you're going to get from point A to point B without getting run over," he said, referring to the 1981 movie.

"Life-long residents have been moved out of their homes that they've rented for decades. People who own their homes have accepted very high offers and then they've been turned into basically dormitories by landlords, both American and Haitian. There's a lot of greed on both sides of the fence," Sanders said on "Jesse Waters Primetime."

"We have a temp service. A temporary staffing service, that actually is probably employing about 95% of those that have arrived here that are working. Many aren't. Not everybody's working. And people will say that not everybody is. But the staffing service owns 63 homes. Those homes are used as dormitories. They shuttle the workers to and from their jobs. And, you know, they go. He takes a portion of their check, charges them for transportation charges and for lodging," he continued.

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Springfield, Ohio resident Mark Sanders talks about the migrant crisis that has impacted his community.

Residents say auto wrecks have also spiked since migrants arrived. 

Last year in Springfield, dozens were injured and a boy was killed after a Haitian migrant without a valid driver's license swerved and caused a school bus to crash. 

Sanders says Springfield residents aren't "anti-immigrant;" they just want the town to feel safe again and for its residents to have the resources they need.

"Nothing can be further from the truth," Sanders said. "What we are is a city that only wants our safety, security and sovereignty back."

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"When you have, obviously the incident that occurred a year ago, we've had total upheaval because of that. Our food pantries, they get stripped. Our clinic, which is [called] Rocking Horse, is a federally funded clinic in town. Their budget was decimated. In Haitian, clinic means hospital. Our emergency rooms are overrun," he continued.

"Of course nobody's being compensated unless they've actually checked in with the Health department and qualified for the Medicaid," he said. "Our roads are like it's like ‘Escape from New York’ and everybody feels like Snake Plissken. You don't know if you're going to get from point A to point B without getting run over, run into or have a SUV flip over in front of you. And again, the bad driving is multinational. I don't want to sound like it's only one group that's doing it, but I think that they're the most that's happening. I mean, they have between four and six wrecks a day and probably over 50% of those are people without licenses, without insurance and have no English skills."

RESIDENTS OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO ATTEND CITY COUNCIL MEETING TO SHARE FRUSTRATION ABOUT MIGRANT CRISIS HITTING THEIR COMMUNITY

Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.  (Screenshot: Fox News simulcast of ABC News Presidential Debate)

Springfield came into the national spotlight this week after former President Trump highlighted the tiny town's problems during the presidential debate, blaming President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' "open-border" policies.

During her 2019 presidential campaign, Harris supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings, called to shut down immigration detention centers on day one and talked about Immigration and Customs Enforcement starting again "from scratch."

Since emerging as the 2024 Democratic nominee, Harris has pledged to "Secure Our Borders and Fix Our Broken Immigration System," on her campaign's policy page. She has also doubled down on her support for an "earned pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants.

Sanders was skeptical of Harris' pledge to secure the border after three and-a-half years in office.

"I think Kamala is kind of like that spouse that cheats on you and says she'll stop when it's your anniversary. All the things she's promising to do she can do now. She just chooses not to," he told Watters. "She's not the one for the White House. She's not the one."

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Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.