Mr Biden’s administration faced fury from both sides of the political spectrum over its handling of the situation.
The images of more than 12,000 people camped around a Texas bridge sparked outrage among Republicans who accused the White House of lax border policies, while the images of border agents on horseback and brandishing whips triggered a progressive backlash.
In response, the White House carried out rapid expulsions, made possible by a pandemic-era authority enacted under Trump that allowed deportations without the opportunity to seek asylum.
But by January 2023, the Biden administration had allowed those powers to expire and launched an online app, CBP One, to admit up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela in the hopes of making illegal immigration less attractive.
In its first year, more than 357,000 people were granted parole and allowed to enter the country under the programme. Haitians comprised the biggest group, making up 138,000 of the total.
How an app holds the fate of migrants in its hands
Migrants must apply via the app, fund their own transport to the US and have a financial sponsor in the country to be eligible. If approved, they can stay for two years and receive a work permit.
Mr Biden’s unfettered use of parole authority in the face of a gridlocked Congress has come to form a major piece of his administration’s immigration policies.
But critics have argued it circumvents immigration laws and accused Mr Biden of abusing a temporary power intended to be applied to cases involving urgent humanitarian need or significant public benefit.
Simon Hankinson, an immigration research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the “combination” of parole, TPS and rising illegal immigration had contributed to influxes in cities like Springfield.
“This approach of essentially unlimited parole is an utterly new policy,” he said, which had created a “quasi-parallel system”.
“The town of Springfield seems to have been overwhelmed… I suspect that city is not alone,” he added.
While the White House has dismissed Trump’s comments on Springfield as a “very bizarre and very hateful smear”, the state’s most prominent Democrat has taken a very different approach.
Mr Brown, the Ohio senator, has kept a cautious distance from the Biden administration as he seeks re-election in a race that may determine the balance of power in the US Senate,
He has kept a low profile in the media storm surrounding Springfield. But in a statement, his office made clear he “understands the real concerns from the community… as it deals with an influx of Haitian immigrants who are putting a strain on city infrastructure”.
Meanwhile, Marianne Williamson, a former longshot Democratic presidential candidate and self-help guru, warned that dismissing voters’ concerns over immigration would only confirm many in the belief in “the stereotype of Democrats as smug elite jerks”.