Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine publicly broke with President Trump on Haitian deportations this week, arguing that the roughly 30,000 Haitians in his state holding Temporary Protected Status should not be removed, even after the Supreme Court cleared the way for their deportation.
“Haiti is hell today. So you’d be sending people back to hell,” DeWine told CBS in an interview. “Very few of these Haitians will voluntarily go back to Haiti. If they have to leave, they’ll go someplace else. They want to work. They want to support their family. They don’t want to go back to Haiti.”
The governor pointed specifically to Springfield, Ohio, where Haitian TPS holders have settled in significant numbers. “These are people who have helped Springfield really come back,” he said. “They came there because there were jobs that were not being filled by other people.”
DeWine’s comments drew immediate and heavy fire online after the Supreme Court handed Trump two major immigration victories last week. The court ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Doe that Haitian and Syrian TPS holders cannot use federal courts to delay the cancellation of their legal status while challenging the administration’s policies. In a separate ruling, the court held that migrants turned away at the southern border before entering are not entitled to apply for asylum.
Conservative commentators on X hammered DeWine after CBS posted the story. Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, replied: “What makes Haiti hellish? Is it…the Haitians?” Logan Hall of The Blaze asked: “Hey governor, what is it that makes Haiti so bad anyway?”
DeWine, who represents a state that voted for Trump, did not say whether he would take steps to shield Haitian residents from federal enforcement operations.
