Springfield Haitians Face Fear and Hardship as Neighbors Rally and Early Voting Surges

Early voting in Clark County, Ohio, is surging, and election officials say the number of early voters in Springfield and the surrounding county has tripled compared with 2022. Some residents say anger over the Trump administration's campaign to deport Haitians who had been living legally in the United States under temporary protected status, or TPS, is part of the reason they are casting ballots early.

The Haitian Support Center, a nonprofit office at the rear of High Street Church, shows what that campaign looks like day to day. Phones ring constantly. Clients arrive seeking help with bills they can no longer cover after losing their jobs, and with immigration paperwork they hope might delay deportation. Rose Joseph, who helps run the office, trained as a social worker in Haiti and has lived in the country under TPS, which the administration has since revoked for Haitians. She now spends much of her time arranging rides to immigration court appointments that are often hours away. "If they have 8 a.m. appointment, we ask the driver to pick them up at 4 a.m.," she said.

Security is a concern at the center. A volunteer is assigned to the front window to watch for ICE agents, hecklers and members of a group called the Blood Tribe. Volunteers Betsy Director and Marjory Wentworth described the group as neo-Nazis who have visited a few times. Wentworth showed a video, filmed only a few weeks ago, of members in all-black uniforms waving swastika flags.

Caseworker James Fleurijean said he believes the hate is a minority view. "If it was the majority, there wouldn't be any Haitian here, believe me," he said. President Donald Trump first maligned Springfield's Haitian community before a national audience by falsely claiming in a 2024 presidential debate that its members were eating people's pets. He has kept up the claims on the midterm campaign trail, including at a rally in Vandalia, Ohio, earlier this month and as recently as two weeks ago, when he said of the debate remarks, "I was right." He has also said Haitians caused Springfield to decline. City officials have repeatedly said the opposite, that the labor and taxes of Haitian migrants have helped revitalize the city.

Fleurijean said many Haitians came to Springfield because jobs were plentiful and factories were closing for lack of employees. Some worked seven days a week, he said, with overtime.

The human toll has been severe. Fleurijean described a client, 20-year-old college student Pierre Damas Bel, who sought help removing the ankle monitor ICE required some Haitians to wear after they lost TPS. Letters from his coach and his school asking that it be removed so he could play soccer were rejected. Damas Bel walked into traffic, and his death was ruled a suicide. In a final voice message, he said people who see the monitor assume the wearer is a criminal who was just released. Fleurijean said he has also seen women aged 65 and 70 come to the office in tears saying they want to kill themselves.

A few blocks away, volunteers with the local chapter of the Catholic group Society of St. Vincent de Paul assemble food boxes, a need that has grown because many Haitian residents can no longer work without TPS. Clara Copeland, widow of former Springfield mayor Warren Copeland, packs hygiene bags to go with each box. A call for more supplies goes out every Monday, and donations keep arriving.

Volunteers said the lies about their Haitian neighbors prompted a backlash. "People just decided, no, not in our town," one said. Asked whether the treatment of Haitians, who cannot vote, is influencing those who can, one volunteer answered: "One hundred percent. We're mad. We're voting." Karen Duncan said most of the volunteers have already voted. Asked whether she feels hopeful, Copeland replied, "Ask us after Election Day."