SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Thousands of Haitians who legally rebuilt their lives in Ohio are losing jobs and facing deportation to a country dominated by armed gangs after the Trump administration terminated their Temporary Protected Status.
The designation ended Monday, stripping recipients of federal work authorization and protection from deportation. Pastor Carl Ruby said Springfield employers have already begun terminating Haitian workers, while families are confronting an appalling choice: take their American-born children into Haiti’s violence or leave them behind in the United States.
Ruby said community members include survivors of kidnapping, torture, rape and killings. One 12-year-old previously witnessed animals feeding on murdered bodies in Haiti, he said.
Temporary Protected Status was first granted after Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake and repeatedly renewed as security conditions deteriorated. The administration nevertheless moved to end it, affecting more than 330,000 Haitians nationwide and thousands in Springfield. The Supreme Court allowed the termination to proceed after ruling that the governing law restricts most judicial challenges.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine called the policy a mistake, noting that gangs control much of Haiti, its government barely functions and its economy is collapsing.
Immigrant advocates are urging DeWine to prevent the Ohio Highway Patrol from assisting ICE with civil immigration enforcement as Springfield prepares for possible raids.
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