The town of Springfield, Ohio, unexpectedly found itself in the national spotlight in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. At question was the town’s sizable community of Haitian migrants, which had grown mightily during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
And Springfield might soon be in the national spotlight once again because Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States is set to end on Feb. 3.
Will these Haitians head home, or will it fall to the Trump administration to enforce the law and remove the migrants?
Springfield in the Spotlight
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” President Donald Trump, then the GOP presidential nominee, said at the Sept. 10, 2024, presidential debate. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Democrat nominee and former Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, chuckled.
The president’s comments on the debate stage perhaps marked the zenith in the contrast between Trump and Harris on the issue of immigration.
The day before the debate, then-Republican nominee for vice president JD Vance posted on X, “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”
While the story of Haitian immigrants eating pets and other animals remains controversial, what is not disputed is how the influx of Haitian migrants strained city resources.
Simon Hankinson, a senior fellow for the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, researched the issues in Springfield and went to see them with his own eyes.
Hankinson spoke to The Daily Signal about his findings.
While in Springfield, Hankinson visited a county services building. “There were a lot of people in line to sign on for welfare benefits. Every single one was Haitian,” he said.
This was unsurprising to Hankinson. Speaking in terms of “net fiscal effects,” Hankinson further explained that “if you look at unskilled workers who don’t speak English, who have dependents, they almost always are a net loss to the fisc. in the short term, [though] maybe their children or grandchildren will be contributors.”
“But in all the studies that I’ve seen show that, if you’re a 30-year-old rocket scientist with good health who speaks English, you’re going to be a net contributor of half a million dollars over your lifetime,” Hankinson added. “If you’re a 25-year-old or 50-year-old unskilled laborer, you don’t speak English, you have dependents, you’re going to be a net taker for probably the same amount of money.”
While Hankinson acknowledged that many Haitians may be employed and paying taxes, he also noted that “those taxes are in no way going to make up for the services, free medical care, housing, education, and on and on that they’re taking out of not only the Ohio budget, but also the government budget.”
“Now with refugees, that’s a price that the United States agrees to take,” Hankinson pointed out, also bringing up the Biden administration in how this amounted to bringing in 1.5 million people under a parole program, or TPS.
“None of those calculations are made,” Hankinson added, pointing out that “people… basically get a free ride.”
The Push to End TPS
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was also among those sounding the alarm last year about immigration policies under Biden. In September 2024, Yost released a press release that his office was seeking legal avenues to stop the federal government, then under the Biden administration, “from sending an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities.”
“Springfield has swollen by more than a third due to migrants,” Yost said.
When reached for comment, Yost’s office directed The Daily Signal to a press release from last January, when the attorney general led 18 states in seeking a federal review of countries granted TPS status.
In his letter to then-Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security-Designee Kristi Noem, Yost emphasized the temporary nature of the TPS program: “Congress made these designations temporary for a reason – they were never supposed to last 20-plus years,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security also emphasized the temporary nature of TPS in a statement shared with The Daily Signal.
“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe.”
Last November, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced TPS would be coming to an end on Feb. 3.
“If you are an alien who is currently a beneficiary of TPS for Haiti, you should prepare to depart if you have no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States,” the release said.
Haitians were advised to use the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Home Mobile app to self-deport, which includes a $1,000 bonus, complimentary airfare, and “potential future opportunities for legal immigration to the United States.”
The deadline for Haitians comes after legal battles for Noem looking to end TPS for Haitians and other nationalities. Last October, the U.S. Supreme Court paused a lower court ruling, allowing the process of ending TPS to move forward. The Feb. 3 date was set by the courts.
Biden Created Big Problems
McLaughlin told The Daily Signal that the Biden administration policies had taken a bad problem and made it worse.
“For decades the TPS program has been abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program. Its use has been all the more dangerous given the millions of unvetted illegal aliens the Biden Administration let into this country,” McLaughlin claimed.
“Secretary Noem will use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans,” McLaughlin added.
Hankinson claimed that “Biden brought in 1.5 million people, completely illegally, in my mind,” adding it was “with absolutely no congressional justification,” through these kinds of programs.
The presence of these illegal migrants changed lives in Ohio communities forever.
Hermanio Joseph, an immigrant from Haiti who crossed over illegally under Biden’s term, was driving with an invalid license in Lawrenceville, Ohio, on Aug. 22, 2024, which resulted in tragedy. Joseph struck a school bus full of children, killing Aiden Clark, 11, and injuring many more.
Will They Stay or Will They Go?
There’s an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians in Springfield, according to the Dayton Daily News, which also noted, “It’s unknown exactly how many people will be affected” by the TPS order.
With the TPS deadline nearing, however, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has raised concerns about how the Haitians’ departure could impact business.
“As I talk to employers, I know what’s going to happen on that Feb. 3 day,” the governor said, according to a Dayton Daily News report. “That is employers tell me on that date many of these—maybe most—of the Haitians who are working there will no longer be legal. Once they go from legal, which they are now, to not being legal, they cannot employ them.”
“You’re going to have a lot of unfilled jobs,” DeWine continued.
But DeWine could not say just how many Haitian migrants lived in his state for sure: “You’re going to have, whatever the consequences are of 10,000—or who knows how many, no one knows really—people who are no longer being able to be employed.”
“They want to work. Many of them are raising families. Some of them have children who are citizens. So, yeah, this is not a good situation,” DeWine added.
“When you talk to business men and women who are employing them, what they tell me has not changed. It continues to be, ‘we need them to work. They are reliable. Yes, there are language challenges. Yes, there are cultural challenges. But they show up,'” DeWine said, according to the Statehouse News Bureau.
When reached for comment by The Daily Signal, the governor’s office shared that it “does not have additional comments beyond the Governor’s previous statements.”
As for whether DHS and the governor have been in touch, McLaughlin communicated that “DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels.”
The Feb. 3 deadline is just days away. Will these estimated thousands of people leave, or stay put and remain in the country illegally in the shadows? What happens could be a test case for Ohio, and the country.
