SPRINGFIELD — Springfield City Leaders will host their first meeting after the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) ended for thousands of Haitian Immigrants who live there.
Although TPS is not on the agenda for the meeting Tuesday night, the mayor will often discuss topics that he knows are on the minds of the people.
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News Center 7’s Taylor Robertson will be in Springfield with what local and state leaders plan on doing next LIVE on News Center 7 Daybreak.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in an interview with CBS that ending TPS was a mistake.
He said that Ohio is creating a lot of jobs, and immigrants who are in the state under TPS have filled those positions.
“These are people that have opened restaurants, they’ve opened businesses, they’ve rehabbed houses, so to lose them and not have them be able to work anymore and possibly taken out of this country. It’s frankly a blow to Springfield and a blow to the state of Ohio,” said DeWine.
DeWine said that he doesn’t think the Haitians will return to Haiti, but instead they will try to go somewhere else and work.
He does not think that Haiti is a safe place to be sent back to.
“The US government has said don’t travel to Haiti. Don’t fly to Haiti. Imagine this: this is the capital of Haiti. You cannot fly in there, and the reason you cannot fly in there is that they have gangs that shoot at the planes,” said DeWine.
Residents of Springfield said that having Haitians living in the city has not been an issue.
Earl Parker said that he has mixed emotions on the entire situation.
“I believe that if they apply for their citizenship, what’s really the issue?” he said.
Amy Riley said that these people have homes and jobs and that they should be allowed to stay.
“I think that they should stay and work just like everybody else that comes to Springfield,” she said.
It is unclear if or when ICE agents will come to Springfield to enforce the TPS ruling.
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