Ohio Senate candidate rips 'depraved' politicians for Springfield migrant crisis: Citizens 'pay the price'

Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is blasting "depraved" politicians for the migrant crisis in Springfield, Ohio, that he says shows elected Democrats have "forgotten" they "work for the American people."

"Let's start with we don't even know how many Haitian immigrants have been brought into Springfield, Ohio," businessman Bernie Moreno, running as a Republican against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, told Fox News Digital. 

"That's problem number one, and number two is why on earth are we bringing that number of people into a small community like Springfield, where they don't have the infrastructure, they don't have the health system, they don’t have the educational system and to get to the place where they do it would cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars."

Moreno continued, "We have incredible priorities here in America. We have people in need, American citizens that need housing, American citizens that are struggling because of high inflation caused by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Why on earth are we taking precious resources from the American taxpayers and using it to benefit foreign nationals? That's the real question to Springfield that's not being answered."

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Bernie Moreno is the Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio. (Fox News Digital)

Springfield, Ohio, has garnered national headlines in recent weeks over an influx of tens of thousands of Haitian migrants into the town of 60,000, where residents say the infrastructure doesn’t exist to care for them all and that crime has been an increasing issue.

"It's like living in a dystopian nightmare," Springfield resident Diana Daniels told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday. "You hope you wake up and it's 2019 again, and then you realize it's 2024, and it's the same thing over and over again, day after day. It's hard sometimes to get up in the morning and hear residents that I've known for years struggle. This is a paycheck-to-paycheck… kind of town… working class. The citizens that depend on our social services like health care, the Rocking Horse [Community Health Center], going down to the Social Security office for benefits are waiting in line, and they're not getting the services they need."

Moreno told Fox News Digital that Brown and Biden, who he called "two 50-year career politicians," have "forgotten they work for the American people."

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Rose Groute Creole Restaurant in Springfield, Ohio, a popular Haitian food establishment that opened in August 2023. (Fox News)

"Elections come down to whose side you're on and are you on the side of Haiti and Haitians and people suffering all over the world, which clearly we all empathize with, or are you on the side of Americans, American workers, American families, who are seeing their costs of health care go up dramatically, who are seeing their taxes go up, who are seeing their insurance prices go up, who are seeing their grocery bills go up, and what are you doing about that?"

Moreno added, "You're certainly not helping by bringing 5% of the population of this poor country to America to clash two cultures together and land in a place like Springfield, Ohio, where the American citizens there are deprived of the very benefits that they're supposed to get."

Moreno echoed Daniels’ concerns and explained that residents who are "entitled" to use the resources they have paid into are "standing in line behind Haitian immigrants."

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People line up for food at the St. John's Lutheran Church food pantry in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 13, 2024. (Fox News/Max Becall)

"They shouldn't even be in this country in the first place," Moreno said. "That's ultimately what is unfolding and why this story matters so much, because this is genuinely the story of America. Do we want leaders in elected office in Washington, D.C., like President Trump, like what I'll do, like JD Vance, who put America first? Or do you want political leaders that have been there forever? These career serial politicians put the interests of foreign nationals first. That's ultimately what this election comes down to."

Moreno, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia as a child, told Fox News Digital that his fellow legal immigrants are "sick and tired" of this "culture that rewards people for skipping the line" and getting "preferential treatment for whatever reason."

"For example, temporary protected status, operative word 'temporary,' is supposed to be given to people who are here who have an emergency in their home country and need to stay for a few months," Moreno said. 

"Instead, we're using that to make people stay here permanently. That skips the line from the millions of people who want to come to this country. Why are we giving preferential treatment to Haiti? There's suffering all over the world: India, Africa, my home country of Colombia. There's suffering everywhere. Why are we giving preferential treatment to certain countries and not others? And the answer is because you have special interest groups that pay off these politicians, that fund nonprofits, that pay huge salaries to the CEOs and it's all about money and the people who pay the price and the citizens of the people in Springfield, Ohio."

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Sen. Sherrod Brown during votes in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 23, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Moreno also took issue with prominent Democrats and celebrities who he says have not taken the issue seriously.

"Then you have depraved politicians like Sherrod Brown that hang out with their Hollywood celebrity buddies like John Legend, who from his multimillion-dollar mansion in a bathrobe, by the way, talks about how the people in Springfield, Ohio, should be welcoming," Moreno said. 

"Why doesn't he house them? Why don't these migrants go to Beverly Hills and live there 16 or 18 per two-bedroom or three-bedroom-home? And why don't his kids go to school with these migrants that don't speak a word of English, that their culture is very different than ours because, of course, they're the elites of this country that want the rest of us to have to live with the results of their ridiculous policies."

Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Brown and the White House but did not receive a response.