Ohio Haitians brace for what's next after Trump cancels their TPS

Transcript was created using an automated software.

Chris Fitzsimon  
This is Stories From The States. I'm Chris Fitzsimon. Here at States Newsroom, we know there's a lot going on around the country in every state capital. So thank you for being here. First, we're jumping in with the news of the week from around the country. Some states are cracking down on some social media companies. We'll also hear about some major news in some governors' races, and immigration enforcement is making big financial gains for some companies. And there's some big news in the crustacean community, where the lobster could be dethroned as king. Later in the show, the Trump administration ended temporary protected status for over 300,000 Haitians living in the U.S. Now some Haitians in Ohio are being targeted for ankle monitors by ICE as they're facing threats of mass deportation.

Megan Henry  
However, Haitians they're receiving letters asking them to report to ICE offices and receive these ankle monitors.

Chris Fitzsimon  
We'll chat with Ohio Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry about what's going on, but first let's check in on the news with Danielle Gaines, who writes the Evening Wrap newsletter. Danielle, how are you?

Danielle Gaines  
Hi, Chris. I'm good. How are you?

Chris Fitzsimon  
Good. Another wacky week. You know, I try to be positive, but then I hear stories about all these ticks. I got caught in a thunderstorm. It feels like sometimes I feel like I'm waiting for the locusts to come.

Danielle Gaines  
I know there was a tornado in Maryland. Of course, there's the awful wildfires in the West, and all sorts of reinforcements coming from around the world to help us fight the wildfires at this point.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Yeah, I guess this is the the dog days of summer. Maybe maybe things will be brighter in the fall.

Danielle Gaines  
I hope so. I mean, I my bright spot right now is is baseball. You know, we're getting to playoffs, and the Cubs are on an upswing, and that makes me really happy.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Ever since I was a little boy, I was a Dodgers fan, but you know it's not very nice to say that now because they're buying everybody, and it makes it harder for everybody.

Danielle Gaines  
Oh, and I think didn't the Cubs sweep the Dodgers? I think they did.

Chris Fitzsimon  
They did. Don't remind me of that.

Danielle Gaines  
Hey.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Well, let's jump into the news. There's a lot of stuff happening, big themes. One of them around something that virtually everybody knows something about: social media.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, I mean, you just can't stay away from social media. So I thought it was a good time to talk about some of the state policy on this front. So a few big things happened in the past week. So the New Mexico Attorney General got a $560 million judgment against Meta, so that's a huge judgment. Actually, comes just on the tails of another huge judgment from his office that was $375 million. So this most recent ruling declared Meta a public nuisance in the state, and for the ways that it is addictive to people who use it, and particularly to kids, and is affecting kids' mental health.

Chris Fitzsimon  
That's it's it's especially interesting. But all the the states wrestling with how to keep social media out of classrooms feels like that we're really somehow turned a corner. That everybody acknowledges the problem now, at least,

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, absolutely, and that's like one of the things that he was Torres was saying in his press conference was like, we have got to now like stop pretending that this isn't an issue. We have to rewrite the laws to make them to be able to respond to what is happening in the real world that we're actually living in right now, and he was talking about how the law that he sought these damages under was written in 1970, and that made it harder for him to plead his case. And then he was also saying that, you know, these cases should be, although they are absolutely under appeal, that they should be an example to other states to like not back down and to continue pursuing action.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Yeah, and other states are doing it. I guess TikTok has been in the news off and on. I mean, for a while it was illegal, or Congress tried to make it illegal because of its ownership, and now it's back. And now the another AG is going after TikTok.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah. So the Attorney General in Pennsylvania, this time a Republican. So Torres in New Mexico is a Democrat. Dave Sunday in Pennsylvania is a Republican, and he filed a lawsuit under that state's consumer protection law this week, alleging that the app falsely misrepresents itself as being age appropriate for teens as young as 13. So, when you're in the app stores, you know things are labeled by age, and TikTok says it's a 13 plus app, and basically his argument is that the content includes profanity, drinking, drug use, sexually suggestive situations, and it shouldn't be labeled as such. And then the lawsuit and his comments also take issue with like the addictive nature of social media for kids.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Yeah, it's really interesting to think back to you know, when I was a kid, the only analogous thing years and years ago were movies where the rating of a movie would be parents who didn't know anything about a movie were not going to let a 13-year-old kid go to an R-rated movie. It feels like it's the same thing in a way.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, yeah, and there were huge debates over the ratings too, right? Or people trying. To put one scene in to get a higher rating,

Chris Fitzsimon  
Right or leave a scene out because they were worried. That's exactly right. Yeah, kids also in the news with social media in New Jersey.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, so we talked about states pursuing under some old laws, and they're if you go read that Pennsylvania story, they have kind of a rundown of all the lawsuits against TikTok, which is really interesting. But New Jersey is pursuing a new law, so it's called the New Jersey Kids Code Act, and it does a bunch of things. The whole goal is to kind of limit how social media can interact with kids, so it limits the platform's use of the data that children provide to it. It restricts kind of algorithmic content recommendations to minors, and it blocks notifications to kids during school hours. And that's actually defined in the law. So, between eight a.m. and 4p.m. on school days, between Labor Day and Memorial Day, and then it would also block notifications all the time from 10 p.m. to six a.m. just to kind of try to break up how many hours the kids are just kind of lunging for their phones when they hear that noise.

Chris Fitzsimon  
It really strikes me. I know we've talked a lot about data centers and other segments, and I heard something recently about you know now that data centers are more well known, that the opposition is widespread, and and some regulation is trying to catch up. It's interesting that we always have to try to catch up after the fact, even though I think a lot of people have warned all of us and policymakers that all these things were coming and could be harmful, and attempts to regulate it early on always seem to fail until we're till we're at this point.

Danielle Gaines  
Until we're deep into it, and that was kind of what Torres was talking about too. Is like we went through too big to fail, right? With banks, and you know, he's talking about like there has to be concerted effort at this point to to make movement on this.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Well, and another issue that we have talked about many times, and we'll continue, and really interesting stories. I thought this week in the network, I know you want to talk some about our our coverage of immigration enforcement.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, I mean, we just had kind of story after story this week about immigration enforcement, and actually, it's financial boon to private companies. So, CoreCivic, of course, is a private prison operator. They're based in Tennessee, and our Tennessee site got the shareholders report that was recently shared, and it found that revenue grew by more than 27% for Core Civic, and revenue from ICE alone has increased more than 50% compared to the three month period, the same three month period for last year. And then, really, kind of an interesting piece in there is that all the revenue isn't just from operating prisons, but they're also striking real estate deals with the federal government. So, CoreCivic has sold four prisons to the federal government. They earned $2.2 billion from those sales, but then they're actually going to be paid to come back and operate what's happening inside of them by the federal government. So.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Yeah, that is really something. And and then you add, I know the story we talk about. I was sort of startled. A 24 hour call center, in effect, to report people.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah. So this is this is also in Tennessee. This is a small rural town, Adams, about 600 people. There was a notice of a $63 million contract to an Alaska company to operate a 24 hour call center in rural Tennessee. So the goal would be to allow for 24 hour immigration checks. The federal government had kind of some language that said you know it would be like a a helpful place for people to call to locate unaccompanied migrant children and to kind of reconnect people, but it also would be to check on status.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Right. And then maybe the most bizarre story I think of the week. We're talking about gloves now that can shock people. How I don't. That's that seems like something out of a dystopian science fiction movie.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, I mean, I'm not even saying this to be glib, but it's actually shocking. So these are gloves. They look like kind of your regular heavy duty work gloves that you might wear in a cold weather situation, but they are electrical shock gloves. It's called the GLOVE Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, and you know apparently there's a button on it. You can turn it on and off, but it's like a a taser like shock that agents can administer just straight with their hands in the course of immigration enforcement. So this is also from documents we learned that the Department of Homeland Security plans to spend between 10 and $20 million on those devices, and that is from a Kentucky company. It's also a no big contract.

Chris Fitzsimon  
And then finally, on this front, we've reported and it's gotten a lot of publicity in on our network and and elsewhere, that first there was no there were going to be no lawyers to help immigrant kids, and now there is a firm apparently that is going to get some money, but it seems a little questionable.

Danielle Gaines  
Right. So our DC bureau has has that story. It's a little older now, but it you know it just fits so well with kind of this topic, but you know it's a law firm from Texas. It's a smaller firm generally than you would think would get a 150 million dollar contract. It is run by a Trump ally, and they are going to be the ones providing legal aid to immigrant children in American courtrooms, and they don't have any specialized expertise in that area.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Really startling.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah.

Chris Fitzsimon  
I think a lot of people tuning in probably want to hear what you want to say, or summarizing our coverage of what was an unusually big election week.

Danielle Gaines  
Big election week for August. Yeah.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Yeah, big election week for this time of year, and and the big one really. I think I mean there were a lot of them, but Wisconsin was really something and surprised a lot of people.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, you know the purple Midwest, Wisconsin's governor's race for November is set you know there were lots of twists and turns in there. So Francesca Hong, a state lawmaker who identifies as a Democratic socialist, was in the lead for the Democratic Party for quite some time in several polls, gained a good following, had a good run on the campaign trail, and then just a couple weeks ago, a candidate who had previously dropped out came back into the race. That's Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. So he was endorsed by the outgoing governor Tony Evers, also a Democrat, and he came back onto the scene, hit the trail hard, was everywhere all at once. Obviously, the governor was traveling with him, supporting him. The Democratic establishment was also, you know, getting behind him, and he pulled it out. And if he's elected in November, he'll be the first Black person elected as governor of Wisconsin. One of my favorite things about this was just that you know there's a picture of all of the Democratic candidates the next morning having breakfast at a little cafe together, and they're speaking very highly of unity and trying to come together as a ticket because they do have a really tough race in November.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Right. It was also interesting that I guess it's a reminder, not that we needed reminding, but you know the polls both in the Michigan Senate race where El-Sayed won, but barely. He was in many polls up double digits, and so, and in in Wisconsin, the polls were wrong, pretty wrong.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, I know. It goes back to I, you know, we should have checked and seen what the prediction markets were doing. I actually don't know in those races, but we talked about that last week.

Chris Fitzsimon  
I don't either. Yeah, one final election note before we get to one last thing is Minnesota. Pretty interesting, where we have, well, we have Mike Lindell not making it.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, so Mike Lindell, the pillow guy who had faced many obstacles, I guess, on the campaign trail. He was endorsed by the president. He fell to the state house speaker Lisa Demuth, and she'll be the Republican nominee. And she's a rare Republican to beat a Trump-endorsed candidate this year.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Interesting, and she'll have a tough battle, obviously, going against an incumbent U.S. senator.

Danielle Gaines  
Popular U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. She won the Democratic Farmer Labor nomination, and you know it'll be a tough race in November. And a record number of people voted in Minnesota. 1.1 million people voted in the primary, so voters are very motivated.

Chris Fitzsimon  
All right, well let's turn to one last thing.

Danielle Gaines  
Yep, I love one last thing. You know we have so many animal stories and one last thing because who doesn't love a good animal story? I picked this one, you know, partly because there's a Maryland connection here, but researchers are have you know been tracking animal populations in New Hampshire, and one of the things that they're noticing is that lobsters, who have long reigned as the king of the shelled sea creatures off the coast are now being replaced increasingly by crabs, and specifically the Atlantic blue crab of Chesapeake Bay fame. So, this is all kind of exacerbated by warming waters. So, as the water is getting warmer further north, crabs, which typically couldn't establish a year-round population now can, and they are pushing out the lobsters, which of course is a big part of culture and so somewhat concerning.

Chris Fitzsimon  
I like the headline that new faces in the crustacean community.

Danielle Gaines  
Yeah, and I also there's like a lot of little things in there. So the Chesapeake Bay, you know, Atlantic blue crab, I love. I live in Maryland, but there was also the lopsided fiddler crab and the aggressive lady crab, which is my new favorite thing.

Chris Fitzsimon  
That's so funny. Well, Danielle, thank you as for as always for all the great information. Great to talk to you.

Danielle Gaines  
Yes, thank you.

Chris Fitzsimon  
To stay up to date on the latest news happening in all the states, subscribe to Daybreak and Evening Wrap. You can subscribe at newsfromthestates.com/subscribe.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Recently, as many as 350,000 Haitians saw their temporary protected status terminated by the Trump administration. The program is referred to as TPS. Many community leaders warn that TPS ending would force many Haitians back to a dire situation. Some states with large Haitian populations are trying to reinstate the program, like Florida, the state's largest nursing home association. Asked the Department of Homeland Security to consider allowing Haitians with TPS status to continue to work in long-term care. But now the focus turns back to Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, where in 2024, J.D. Vance threw the city into the spotlight with untrue racist lies, claiming that Haitian immigrants were not only abducting but eating pets. That lie was repeated by Donald Trump during the presidential debate. The statements have been fact-checked and repeatedly proven wrong, and now some Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, are being targeted by ICE to wear ankle monitors as they faced increased threats of mass deportation. In a moment, we'll chat with Ohio Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry, who's been on the ground in the central Ohio city. We'll be right back.

Nelle Dunlap  
At a time when the federal government is making drastic changes to public policy and pushing so many programs back to the states, it's hard to know what it all means for you, your family, and your community. Our Evening Wrap newsletter from States Newsroom keeps you up to date on what your elected officials are doing or not doing to manage the fallout, you can sign up by going to statesnewsroom.com/subscribe.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Megan Henry is a reporter at the Ohio Capitol Journal. The Ohio Capital Journal is part of State's Newsroom. Hi, Megan.

Megan Henry  
Thanks for having me.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Well, let's start at the beginning of this complicated tale. First of all, for folks who don't understand what actually is temporary protected status that these Haitian folks are are here as part of.

Megan Henry  
Yes, temporary protected status is a program through the federal government, and countries can apply for TPS if there are you know natural disasters that has devastated their country, or if there's like political turmoil, or basically it is not safe for citizens to be there. They their country can be granted temporary protective status in the United States.

Chris Fitzsimon  
And how many folks in Ohio are we talking about?

Megan Henry  
That's a good question. So in Springfield, Ohio, there's about 15,000 Haitians that were on temporary protectice status, and then in Central Ohio, Columbus area, there's about 30,000 Haitians. But some of them are citizens, and they are not. Not all those in Central Ohio are on TPS. So it's a little hard to say exactly like how many in in Ohio are on are on TPS, but there are about 45,000 Haitians that call Ohio home.

Chris Fitzsimon  
I think for most people who haven't haven't been following this as closely as you have, or or some other folks have probably remember a lot about it during the 2024 election. And Springfield, Ohio, was in the news quite a bit, with the now vice president saying all sorts of crazy things, including that Haitian immigrants were actually eating pets, and President Trump sort of repeated that. What can you just tell us about that experience first, and then we're going to talk about what's happening now?

Megan Henry  
Yes, that's actually when I started, you know, going to Springfield and started reporting on this community back in 2024 during the vice presidential debate. Now, Vice President J.D. Vance, who was formerly an Ohio senator, so he grew up in Ohio, made racist comments about Haitians saying that they were eating pets, eating cats and dogs, and so that led to lots of turmoil in Springfield. Schools were shut down for a number of days. City offices were closed. Everyone was really on edge. Things were very, very tense. I spent a day or two reporting there, as well as some of my colleagues. You know, Haitian restaurants saw declines in customers, but then once that was reported, then there was an increase in you know people trying to support them. So that's that's kind of what put Springfield on the national map when it comes to Haitians.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Right. And now, what do you? What's the general sense you have in the community and in Ohio about the the Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for Haitians?

Megan Henry  
Yes, there's lots of fear of the unknown, lots of uncertainty. It sounds like there is an ICE presence. Well, there is an ICE presence always in Ohio. It sounds like there there might be some ICE officers in Springfield. However, Haitians they're receiving letters asking them to report to ICE offices and receive these ankle monitors and be asked to wear them. And so, as far as I have talked to with sources, there have been no Haitians that have been detained thus far in the Springfield community. However, everyone's kind of on edge, waiting to see what what will happen. What will happen next?

Chris Fitzsimon  
Yeah, it's. I think people will probably be startled to know that. So, just to make sure I understand, or people who are listening understand. So we have a community of Haitian people who came here legally, got temporary protected status, became part of the community, and now they're actually being asked to wear ankle bracelets as if they are criminals.

Megan Henry  
Yes, that is correct. Yes.

Chris Fitzsimon  
One of the things I think is interesting is that the governor of Ohio has not been a fan of of all this, even though he is from the same political party as President Trump and J.D. Vance,

Megan Henry  
Yes, yes, Governor Mike DeWine. He was actually born in Springfield. He grew up in Yellow Springs, which is a town not too far from Springfield. And him and his wife actually years ago opened up a school in in Haiti named after their daughter who has passed away? They aimed in her honor, and so he's been very involved in the the Haitian community, or you know the country of Haiti, and also Springfield also ties there. And then because of all the violence going on in Haiti, the school has actually since had to close, unfortunately, due to gang activity. But the governor Mike DeWine has made many trips to Haiti as a result of the school, and so he has been very outspoken against deporting Haitians and just asking, you know, that this does not this does not happen.

Chris Fitzsimon  
From your sense of being in Springfield during the the the campaign, the '24 campaign, and and other times, and just your awareness of your reporting in Ohio, what's the feeling overall in Springfield about the Haitian community?

Megan Henry  
Yeah, there definitely are people who are very supportive and very glad that they're here. Springfield was a community that actually saw a decline in terms of populations and businesses leaving, and so city really has had a resurgence of with Haitians coming here, of you know businesses reopening, population booming. So there are definitely folks who are very glad that they are here and very supportive, and folks who want to help. You know, have have food, have plans in place in case ICE does start detaining people. There is also a population of folks in Springfield who are not as supportive of the Haitians and are not happy that they are they are here. So it's it's definitely like a mixed bag. There's a vocal minority against the Haitians, but there's also an overwhelming group of advocates, mostly in the church community, who are glad that they're here.

Chris Fitzsimon  
I think Governor DeWine has talked about the impact they're having. I know on the economy and the jobs they perform, and I guess that's one of the reasons. Regardless of how you feel about the issue, it feels like it would have a if all those folks were gone tomorrow a significant effect on the city.

Megan Henry  
Yes, yeah, I did some reporting and I saw I came across a number that said roughly $300 million in annual spending from the county where Springfield is Clark County would be lost if all those Haitians were to be deported.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Wow! So you mentioned it before about the ICE presence. Is that now what's on everyone's mind?

Megan Henry  
Yes. Yes. I was at I was in Springfield at the end of July, and yes, that that is very much on the forefront of everyone's mind that I was talking to. Of you know, if if and when ICE comes, you know what what can people do? Where can people donate? You know, the church advocates I was talking to are encouraging folks if they want to protest to protest peacefully. They do not want violence. They do not want it to turn into what we saw in Minnesota.

Chris Fitzsimon  
And and what do you think people should know who are who haven't followed the story as closely as you have about why this is such an important issue? Just not only in Ohio, but just as the country sort of wrestles with this new emphasis on deportations overall.

Megan Henry  
Yes, yes. I mean, immigration has been in the headlines across the country for the past couple of years, but something that really I think tugs at my heartstrings and I've gotten reader emails about this is Haitians who came in the United States on TPS since I've had children who were born in the United States, and so the children, their children are U.S. citizens. They are here. They are still here legally, and so it's just put a lot of families in really tough situations of 'do we self deport back to Haiti where it's incredibly unsafe and dangerous to go, or do we try to stay in the United States, or you know do do I put my children with you know locals in the community who could take care of them while I figure out what to do with myself?' So it's just really put families in an incredibly hard place.

Chris Fitzsimon  
And I guess there's no we have no way of knowing. I guess nobody really does except the the the folks in ICE or Border Control about when something will happen, other than these ankle bracelets that they're now asking TPS folks to wear.

Megan Henry  
Correct. Yes, the Governor Mike DeWine, as well as the Springfield mayor, they said they have not heard. Of ICE, you know, planning on doing any any raids previously, they have said that ICE has said that they would give officials a heads up beforehand. Some folks don't believe that would actually happen, so just kind of waiting to see what what happens next.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Has anything surprised you in all this reporting on this issue?

Megan Henry  
I think just like the resilience of these advocates, like I mentioned, the church community in Springfield has really rallied around Haitians and making sure this is still in the forefront of people's minds. So I think just the resilience of people in the community.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Well, thank you so much, Megan, for all your great reporting there in Ohio, and thanks for sharing that with us, we appreciate it.

Megan Henry  
Thanks for having me.

Chris Fitzsimon  
Thanks for listening to Stories from the States. I'm Chris Fitzsimon. Mallory Cheng produced and edited the podcast. David Singer produced our theme music. If you liked what you've heard today, please share it with someone you think might enjoy it, and leave a rating and review if you can. It means a lot to know what you think about the podcast, and it helps other people find us. To stay up to date on the latest episodes, subscribe now to Stories From The States, a podcast from States Newsroom, available wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll talk to you soon.