By The American Tribune | Created at 2026-08-10 11:37:00 | Updated at 2026-08-10 13:05:26
2 hours ago
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are reportedly on the ground in Springfield, Ohio, as hundreds of thousands of Haitian nationals face deportation following the termination of their Temporary Protected Status. Author and Springfield researcher Joshua Lisec reported the development on X, saying federal agents are targeting Haitian nationals whose TPS protections have ended. The reported operation comes after months of legal battles over the Trump administration’s effort to terminate the temporary status and begin enforcing immigration law against former TPS holders.
Springfield has been at the center of the country’s Haitian immigration debate since the 2024 presidential election, when the city’s rapidly growing Haitian population became a national political issue. Estimates have placed Springfield’s Haitian immigrant population between roughly 10,000 and 15,000 in a city of fewer than 60,000 residents. Lisec, who spent weeks in Springfield researching the migration issue for his forthcoming book “Haitians of Springfield”, posted the latest report as the legal protections that allowed many Haitian nationals to remain and work in the United States have come to an end.
Lisec wrote on X that ICE agents were operating in Springfield and characterized the enforcement target as “all Haitian nationals” whose protected status had been suspended. The report follows earlier indications that Springfield would be one of the locations targeted by federal immigration authorities once the administration was legally permitted to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation. ICE had been preparing for that possibility well before the final legal obstacles to the termination were removed.
CBS News reported in late July that ICE had developed plans to ramp up arrests and deportations of Haitian migrants following the loss of their protected status. The outlet cited two agency sources along with federal documents it obtained, reporting that the plans specifically included operations in Ohio. Springfield, which has one of the country’s most prominent concentrations of Haitian migrants, was specifically identified in the report.
ICE is also preparing to move arrested Haitian nationals through the deportation process rapidly, including placing deportees on flights back to Haiti. The plans follow the Supreme Court’s June decision allowing the Trump administration to move forward with terminating TPS for more than 300,000 Haitian nationals. That decision removed one of the major legal barriers that had previously prevented the administration from carrying out the enforcement operation it had been preparing.
Temporary Protected Status allows foreign nationals from designated countries to remain and work legally in the United States when the federal government determines that conditions such as war, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances make returning home unsafe. Haiti originally received TPS following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, and the designation was repeatedly extended and expanded in the years that followed. The Trump administration moved to terminate the designation, arguing that a supposedly temporary immigration program had effectively become a long-term means for hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals to remain in the country.
The legal situation shifted decisively in June when the Supreme Court allowed the administration to end the protections. A federal judge subsequently acknowledged in early August that the previous order blocking termination of Haiti’s TPS was no longer in effect following the Supreme Court’s ruling. That cleared another hurdle for the administration and left hundreds of thousands of Haitians who had relied exclusively on the program without the protection from removal by ICE.
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ICE activity in Springfield itself is not entirely new. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in federal court filings that ICE was already conducting daily enforcement activity in Springfield even while litigation prevented the government from enforcing the TPS termination itself. The agency said at the time that it would enforce federal immigration law if the TPS termination were ultimately permitted to take effect.
The end of TPS does not automatically make every Haitian national deportable, as some may have asylum applications, permanent residency, citizenship, or another lawful immigration status independent of TPS. Those who depended exclusively on TPS to remain in the United States, however, have now lost that protection and are looking at being deported any day now.
