Former President Donald Trump is promising to remove Temporary Protected Status and deport the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio — an escalation in rhetoric against a community his campaign has targeted with misinformation for weeks.
“Absolutely I’d revoke it and I’d bring them back to their country,” Trump told NewsNation.
The GOP presidential nominee’s onslaught against the migrants in Springfield has been at the forefront of his campaign in recent weeks, including his now-infamous line in the debate against Vice President Kamala Harris where he accused the migrants of eating their neighbor’s pets — a baseless claim that nonetheless sparked bomb threats targeting Springfield schools. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, had reposted the claims on social media leading up to the debate.
In his interview with NewsNation, Trump said the influx of migrants in the community “just doesn’t work” and “you have to remove the people; we cannot destroy our country.” Roughly 15,000 Haitian migrants have relocated to Springfield in recent years, according to the Associated Press.
Temporary Protected Status allows migrants to stay in the U.S. when their countries are unsafe to return to. In many cases, the countries are undergoing armed conflict, but environmental disasters and other conditions can also lead to TPS being granted. There are currently 16 countries whose citizens have TPS in the U.S. As of March 31, there were over 860,000 people in the U.S. with the temporary status, according to the American Immigration Council.
Despite ongoing criticism for their rhetoric around the migrants in Springfield, Vance and Trump have continued to double down. “I’m still going to keep on talking about what the migrants have done to Springfield, Ohio, and what Kamala Harris’ open border has done to Springfield, Ohio,” Vance said in mid-September on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Some of Trump’s allies believe his continued focus on Springfield has caused his campaign to lose some focus. And Harris has said Trump’s rhetoric against the migrants “has to stop.”
“Regardless of someone’s background, their race, their gender, their geographic location, I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop,” Harris said in an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in September.