Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine defended his support for the importation of cheap labor on Sunday and criticized President Trump for ending protected status for Haitians.
The GOP Gov. appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday to insist that it is “wrong” to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians because businesses in Ohio have imported tens of thousands of Haitian workers for the state’s manufacturing jobs, particularly in the central Ohio town of Springfield.
“Springfield is an industrial city, manufacturing city that was down,” DeWine said as he sat on the panel. “It has been coming back. And frankly, one of the reasons it’s coming back is because of the Haitians who are working there.”
“These are people who, if you talk to the employers, they were filling jobs that were not being able to be filled in any other way,” DeWine exclaimed. “So, it’s been a big boost to the economy.”
“So, if one day that TPS is taken away, no employer can hire them anymore, and you’ll have all these people who are unemployed,” he added. “So, I think the policy there is wrong. If I could just say this, I think that this is a real opportunity for the president in regard to immigration, probably after the election — because nothing’s going to get done before — I think the president has a chance to do something no president has done for four decades if he would take that opportunity, and I think after the elections he’ll have a chance.”
Despite what the governor said on TV, Springfield does not seem to be doing as well as it should.
According to the latest census data, Springfield’s average per capita income is $39,095. Household income levels show a median of $47,143. The poverty rate stands at 23.06 percent.
That does not compare favorably to the averages for the state. Census data shows that Ohio’s average per capita income sits at $40,552, while its Household income levels are at $80,520, and the poverty rate stands at 13.2 percent.
Meanwhile, housing rates in Springfield have seen significant growth since 2020, with home values rising more than 50 percent thanks to a higher demand than there is inventory. Rent prices have also soared in the city, again because there are more people hunting for homes.
Furthermore, Temporary Protected Status allows the up to 15,000 Haitians in Springfield to sign up for welfare programs such as food aid (SNAP), Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This costs residents more in taxation and social spending.
There are also upwards to 1,500 Haitian children enrolled for free schooling in Springfield, causing the school district to prioritize hiring teachers who can speak Haitian Creole.
In addition, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services noted last year that 5,279 applications for aid had been approved for Haitians.
A family of four with a monthly income under $3,380 can receive up to $975 in SNAP benefits a month, according to Ohio officials. Among other programs, there are also housing allowances available for Haitian migrants, though the Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority has not divulged how many Haitian migrants have been enrolled in the program.
The importation of thousands of Haitians who work at lower wages than Americans continues to drive down wages, use up welfare dollars, and drive housing costs up for the area. But this has gotten the seal of approval from Gov. DeWine.
In other comments, both Gov. DeWine and his wife made it clear that they have more than local economic interests at heart by importing Haitians to Ohio. He and his wife, Fran, have been engaged in humanitarian efforts on the island nation for years, and have supported a school in Port Au Prince named for their daughter, Becky, who died in a car accident at 22 in 1993.
“For many, many years, we’ve worked with a school in Haiti that’s named for our daughter, Becky, that we lost, and so we’ve been down there many, many times,” Fran DeWine explained, according to WCPO-TV. “We actually helped establish the school because we saw the extreme poverty that they had there in Haiti.”
“So we’ve kind of watched what’s going on in Springfield, and we’ve talked to employers and people and found out, really, the employers love their Haitian workers,” Fran gushed. “They said they work hard, they wanted to work overtime, they never have trouble passing a drug test. They’re just stellar workers.”
For his part, the governor noted that Haiti is a humanitarian disaster and he is happy to give Haitians a place in Ohio to escape their failed nation.
“This is a country (where) there’s massive unemployment; gangs are controlling most of the country, there’s violence all over the country. It’s a dysfunctional government, nothing works very well down there,” DeWine said.
“It’s a rough, rough, situation,” DeWine added. “None of these (or) very few of these Haitians, if they have to leave, are going to go back to Haiti, they’re going to try to find someplace else. They’re not going to go back, it’s too dangerous.,” he added.
But Trump DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin notes that Temporary Protected Status is supposed to be just that, temporary.
“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” McLaughlin wrote on X. “Temporary means temporary and the final word will not be from an activist judge legislating from the bench.”
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