Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is urging President Donald Trump to rethink his decision to end Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, arguing the move may be legal but is bad public policy.
Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Republican governor said conditions in Haiti remain too dangerous for large-scale returns, even after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate TPS protections.
“You cannot fly into Port-au-Prince today,” DeWine said.
“Just this last week, several more schoolchildren were killed just because gangs were shooting back and forth. Gangs control a significant part of Haiti,” he said.
TPS allows migrants from countries deemed unsafe to temporarily live and work in the United States. Haitians have been eligible for the program since a devastating earthquake struck the Caribbean nation in 2010. DeWine and his wife have viewed Haiti as a personal pet project, visiting the war-torn country often in recent decades.
Roughly 350,000 Haitians currently live in the U.S. under TPS, including more than 10,000 in Ohio. Many are concentrated in the Springfield area. Overall, more than 1.3 million people from 17 countries were receiving TPS protections as of March last year, according to the National Immigration Forum.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that federal law governing TPS leaves “no judicial review of any determination … with respect to the … termination” of a country’s TPS designation, allowing the Trump administration to move forward with ending protections for Haitians.
The decision also rejected claims that former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem failed to follow proper procedures or that the administration’s actions were driven by racial animus.
Immigrant-rights groups pointed to Trump’s past comments claiming Haitian migrants were “eating the dogs” and referring to Haiti as a “filthy, dirty and disgusting s—hole country” as evidence of discriminatory intent.
But Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said the remarks were not “overtly racial, and in substance all expressed policy views that could rest on race-neutral justifications.”
DeWine said he respects the court’s ruling but believes the White House should reconsider the policy.
“I accept the Supreme Court’s decision.”
“In this country, they’re the final say of what the law is,” the governor said. “I think that it’s important that we separate the legal decision that was made by the Supreme Court with the issue of public policy.
“I would hope the Trump administration would reconsider,” he said. “These are jobs that are being filled by Haitians who are filling jobs that would not be filled any other way.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the administration plans to offer Haitians with TPS about $2,100 each to voluntarily return home.
“The whole time these individuals have been here underneath the Temporary Protected Status, they could have applied for a visa. They could have applied for LPR [Lawful Permanent Resident],” Mullin said on “State of the Union.”
“These individuals have a couple of choices,” he added. “They can try to apply for a permanent residence here. They can apply for a temporary visa if they choose to, or they can choose to go back. And if they want to go back, we will help them with that.”
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