Federal immigration officers have arrested 380 Haitian citizens in the small city of Springfield, Ohio, following the conclusion of a federal program that had allowed illegal immigrants from the Caribbean nation to avoid deportation.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced during a roundtable event in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Friday afternoon that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested hundreds of Haitians who lost their temporary protected status last month. Roughly 350,000 Haitians lost their protection from deportation and those who remain in the United States are considered illegally present in the country.
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“We’ve made 380 arrests in Springfield. We’re going to continue to push. We encourage everybody to go home,” Mullin said during a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement and ICE officials. “Your state and your country needs you. That’s where you should be headed. If you want to rebuild your country, go back and rebuild it. Take it back.”
The figure is more than 10 times the estimate that a representative from the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield gave two weeks ago. At the time, the organization said 29 Haitians had been arrested of the city’s 15,000 approximate Haitian population.
President Donald Trump put Springfield in the national spotlight during the 2024 presidential election when he claimed without proof that Haitians residing in the city had been seen butchering household pets.
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The Washington Examiner had reported earlier this summer that ICE was preparing to target Haitians on a national level as well as in Springfield, given Trump’s comments during the 2024 election accusing Haitians in Ohio of butchering household pets and putting a bullseye on the city.
Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon pointed out during his show on Real America’s Voice on Friday that “at 170 to 200 people a plane, one plane a week, instead of one plane a month, you’re going to deport 10,000 this year. We have hundreds of thousands of Haitians here.”
