“It hurts me because when they go other places, they’re going to have to start all over,” Daity said. “At the end of the day I don’t have any problem with Mr. Trump when he said what he said because he’s trying to protect the country. But at the same time, when you create fear, things happen to people when they fear.”
DeWine said he hopes Haitian immigrants stay and that he understands that many are fearful for their legal status.
“Their legal status does not depend on where they are, so if they’re concerned about something changing in the future, being in some other state doesn’t help them,” said DeWine, who was in Springfield to speak about a driver training initiative. “They have put down roots here, they’ve become part of the community and we would like for them to stay here and understand that they are welcome and they’re needed here.”
Trump said during his campaign for president that he would enact mass deportations, singling out Springfield, which is home to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants. Most of those Haitians are in the country under humanitarian parole programs, with many of them also having Temporary Protected Status, a legal status that enables them to remain in the country until at least February 2026.
There’s some question about how the Trump administration will approach the immigration issue.
Tom Homan, Trump’s new “border czar” talked about the ability to end Temporary Protected Status “tomorrow,” if the administration wanted to. But Two weeks ago, Ohio’s new Republican U.S. Senator-elect, Bernie Moreno, said Haitians living legally in Springfield would be allowed to stay for now.
“They’re under temporary protected status. That status is good until February of ‘26,” Moreno said. “That’s the law. We’re going to respect that. We’re not going to change that.”
Springfield took center stage in the national immigration debate during the election after Trump and running mate JD Vance, among thousands of others, parroted baseless rumors that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets. The weeks that followed saw national media, protesters and hate groups flood into town.
Daity said he hopes that once Trump is sworn in, he will not put Haitian immigrants who have legal status “in the same basket” as those here illegally.
DeWine said the state needs more people to come to Ohio, as there are more jobs being created than people to fill them.
“We want them to come here; we want them to put down their roots here,” DeWine said.
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