BLUE ASH, Ohio — More than 500 people lined the street here Sunday, Aug. 2, protesting in front of the local Department of Homeland Security facility to demand extension of Temporary Protective Status for Haitian immigrants.
Many Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, have received letters telling them they are now required to report to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations in this field office. Blue Ash is a suburb of Cincinnati.
An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians live in Springfield — close to a quarter of the population. They work in local factories and warehouses, medical facilities, the school system and as small business owners. Those without another status — like asylum or permanent residency — are now subject to deportation as the government has ended TPS for Haitians. Many have already lost their jobs and driver’s licenses.
Haitians first won TPS in 2010 after a massive earthquake killed over 300,000 people and destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The last 16 years have been marked by additional earthquakes, destructive hurricanes, a deadly cholera epidemic, the fall of the central government and the rise to power of murderous criminal gangs that run rampant over much of the country. Since 2020, the State Department has maintained the highest possible “Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti.
Protesters clapped and cheered to show solidarity as Haitian immigrants entered and exited the DHS facility. “We need to be visible, and we have to let people know that we’re not OK with what’s happening to our communities and our Haitian brothers and sisters,” Samantha Searles, a program director for Ignite Peace, one of the organizations that sponsored the protest, told the Militant. “We are here to have a peaceful presence in solidarity.”
Sony Prenice, a Haitian from Springfield and one of those responding to the government letter, told reporters she was given two choices — either report to the office and be issued an ankle monitor or decide to “self-deport,” receiving free travel and a $2,600 “exit bonus.” Prenice chose the ankle monitor, which restricts her to a 75-mile radius around her home. To go farther, she has to call ICE and get permission.
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield and himself a TPS holder, told the press the ankle monitors were reminiscent of chains and slavery. “They don’t want us to be here and now they try to put us in chains as if we did something wrong,” he said.
Referring to the fact U.S. forces occupied Haiti until 1934, he said, “The American people have to know that if we are here, it is because the foreign policies of the U.S. and other big countries have failed our country and make it a hell for us. If you put my house on fire, you would have to expect that I would come to your yard.”
Protester Mary Zander, a medical writer, told the Militant, “I came today because I want to make sure the Haitian people who came here under Temporary Protective Status know that regardless of what the government says there’s plenty of people in this country that back them.”
Jackie Brolhorst, a member of the Immigrant Dignity Coalition, agreed. “The government is treating immigrants as scapegoats. They are blaming all the problems on them,” she said. “As long as they give us someone else to hate they hope we won’t focus on them.” Another protest has been called for Aug. 9, at 7 a.m., at the same ICE facility here in Blue Ash.