Springfield, Ohio, residents raised dire concerns about crime and the influx of migrants during a town hall with Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, Haitian migration increased the town’s population by an estimated 25 percent, according to the Columbus Dispatch. City critics say it is a Haitian invasion, leading to deaths, displaced residents, and surging insurance rates.

“There simply are too many mass migrants here in this town, and they’re too richly subsidized. It’s pushing people out of their homes. It’s pushing people out of their jobs,” one resident said during the town hall.

“We are at a level of desperation,” another meeting attendee stated. “We have been put down and called racists, not only in print but also to our faces at city commission meetings.”

One resident told a story about how the police failed to quickly respond after a man allegedly chased her daughter with a machete.

“She was chased by a man with a machete on her way to work,” the mother recalled. “[She] called the police. She told them what had happened and wanted to file a report. Two hours later, the police still had not called her back and never checked on the crime.”

The city’s mayor, Rob Rue, was invited to attend the meeting to hear the residents’ concerns, but he did not show up.

“I’ve been a resident Springfield, Clark County for 61 years, [and] if our City Council and everybody wants to be a part of the solution – I’ve been sitting right there by the door, I haven’t seen a single one of them,” a fourth resident said at the event.

Rue, instead of attending the meeting, issued a statement. “We are addressing these threats with the seriousness they warrant and are taking immediate steps to ensure the security of both our community and our employees. Our commitment to preventing harm is unwavering,” he said Thursday.

Former President Donald Trump, who has campaigned on securing the border and deporting illegal aliens, vowed on Wednesday to visit the city in the coming weeks.

“We’re getting them out of our country. They came in illegally,” Trump said. “We’re getting them out. They’re going to be brought back to the country from which they came.”

Immigration is a top three issue of the 2024 cycle. More on immigration here.

Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.