The Trump administration has slowly begun removing Haitians who are illegally residing in the United States following the expiration of the temporary protected status program. But some conservatives say that isn’t enough to fulfill President Donald Trump‘s campaign promises.
In the wake of the courts allowing the Trump administration to strike down TPS, roughly 350,000 Haitian illegal immigrants are no longer permitted to work in the U.S. and have lost protection from deportation, making them prime targets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Hundreds of Haitians residing in the Springfield, Ohio, region were contacted by ICE in late July and told to check in with immigration authorities at a local federal office, where many reported being outfitted with ankle monitors, according to lawyers who spoke with the Haitian Times.
The Washington Examiner had reported that ICE was preparing to target Haitians on a national level as well as in Springfield, given Trump’s comments during the 2024 presidential election accusing Haitians in Ohio of butchering household pets and putting a bullseye on the city.
But in the weeks that Haitians have been without deportation protections, few have actually been deported.
ICE touted two deportation flights to Haiti over the past two weeks, roughly 300 people in total.
The Trump administration touted its tough approach on social media recently, posting a video Thursday that went viral and calling for the roughly 350,000 Haitians without TPS protections to leave or face arrest, detention, and deportation.
“Haiti TPS has been TERMINATED,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on X with a video that showed Haitian men being loaded in the rain onto an airplane that would transport them to Haiti.
“Those with terminated TPS are in our nation Illegally. They have two options: LEAVE IMMEDIATELY or be DEPORTED,” the post said.
The men were dressed in light-gray sweatsuits as federal police in rain gear guided them from vans to steps leading up to the plane’s door in the dark. The flight took place Thursday.
The video has prompted blowback from conservatives who have pointed out that even if the Trump administration continued arresting and removing Haitian illegal immigrants at the current rate, it would hardly make a difference given the size of the Haitian population in the U.S.
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. The dogs of Springfield don’t want to be cooked, don’t want to be baked, don’t want to be used for a snack or dinner.”
Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute think tank in New York, also ran the numbers.
“This is increasing flights from 1 per month to 1 per week. Even if they fill 200 seats per deportation flight, that is a pace of 10,000 a year,” Di Martino posted on X Thursday. “Over 300,000 haitians lost TPS and thus pay less in taxes and harm the economy, all to deport a max of 25,000 before 2029.”
Meanwhile, immigrant rights groups say the Trump administration is unfairly targeting Haitians over other nationalities.
Theresa Hice-Fromille is a board member at the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield. As of last week, Hice-Fromille stated that 29 Haitian immigrants had been taken into custody by ICE. The city has a population of approximately 15,000 Haitians.
On Friday afternoon, religious leaders in Springfield gathered at a press conference to condemn ICE and described Springfield as being “under siege,” according to a local media report.
DHS and ICE did not provide numerical counts for how many Haitian immigrants it has arrested in Springfield when asked by the Washington Examiner.
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“Every day, DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe. DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations,” a DHS spokesperson wrote in an email. “Temporary Protected Status is exactly that — temporary. For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”
Immigrant rights groups Haitian Support Center and Haitian Bridge Alliance, as well as the city of Springfield, did not respond to requests for comment.
