U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, met with community, education and workforce leaders Monday at Apollo Career Center.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — The rise in the area’s Haitian population has sparked numerous discussions and debates in recent months. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, met with community and business leaders at Apollo Career Center to discuss this influx and its impact on community and workforce development.
As more new arrivals have made their way to Allen County, language barriers have caused a slowdown in the process to obtain benefits such as food stamps and medical benefits. This slowdown has been compounded by the fact that the large majority of Haitians coming in for help do not have any documentation.
According to Joe Patton, the executive director for Allen County Job and Family Services, of the more than 800 Haitian applicants that have come into his office, only around 100 were approved since they had the necessary documentation.
“There’s not a lot we can do for them at that point,” he said. “I think somewhere along the line, the chain is broken where they come in through the immigration center and then get released. Once they do that, they have the right documentation, and then we can serve those people, but the undocumented folks that come to our door do put a burden on resources because with the language barrier, it takes a lot longer to serve them, and a lot of times you go through the entire application process and then they’re not able to be served.”
Jordan placed the responsibility for this situation at the feet of the current administration. While estimates at the meeting point to possibly 1,500 to 2,000 Haitians now residing in the area, that is just a small part of the issues the country is facing due to the large number of migrants who have entered the country, Jordan said.
“(When you look at) the number of migrants who have come into the country in the Biden-Harris administration, it’s over 10 million,” he said. “(It has a) real effect on communities, on your healthcare system, your education service, like here at Apollo and so many — your emergency services. So we wanted to hear about that, as well.”
The most significant impact on how this situation will develop going forward is the November election, Jordan maintained.
“We’ve got an election in 78 days,” he said. “It’s really important that President (Donald) Trump wins because the Biden-Harris administration has intentionally, deliberately, willfully created this situation when they decided right from the beginning, there would be no more building the wall, no more remaining in Mexico while we evaluate people claiming asylum.”
