DeWine concerned about Ohio’s economy after Trump removed the TPS status of Haitians
In December 2025, Gov. Mike DeWine met with Ohio’s Catholic school leaders to discuss the successes they've seen in bringing the Science of Reading to classrooms across the state.
Gov. Mike DeWine criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living in Ohio, warning that their deportation could result in a possible economic crisis in Springfield, where the majority of Haitians allegedly live.
On Nov. 26, the Department of Homeland Security announced the termination of TPS for Haitian migrants living in the country, posting a federal register notice stating that the 353,000 Haitian migrants currently holding TPS will see their status expire in February 2026.
Trump terminating the TPS status for Haitians is him fulfilling his promise to his voters that he made while he was still running for president in 2024.
DeWine, who previously supported migrants from Haiti by setting up a school in Port-au-Prince, told the Statehouse News Bureau that the federal government didn’t inform him about the future of Haitian migrants, adding that he will continue speaking to members of the Springfield community, such as the town’s mayor, Rob Rue, and the Clark County commissioners.
“The facts are that individuals are contributing to the economy of the local community,” DeWine said. “When you talk to businessmen and women who are employing them, what they tell me has not changed. It continues to be, ‘we need them to work. They are reliable. Yes, there are language challenges. Yes, there are cultural challenges. But they show up. They work, they want overtime, they’re reliable, and they pass drug tests.’”
DeWine then said that he thinks there will be “a lot of unfilled jobs” in the Springfield area if all of these migrants are deported.
“You’re going to have whatever the consequences are of 10,000 or who knows how many—no one knows really—people who are no longer able to be employed,” he told the Statehouse News Bureau. “They want to work. Many of them are raising families. Some of them have children who are citizens. So, yeah, this is not a good situation.”
DeWine has been opposing Trump’s desire to revoke the TPS status for people from Haiti since 2024, saying that it would result in “some of the economic progress that we have made, that Springfield has made, would go away.”
According to him, another reason why he doesn’t want Haitians to return to their home country is that it is “one of the most dangerous places in the world,” adding that things have “actually gotten worse” in Haiti.
DeWine also criticized Trump for saying that Haitians were eating pets in Springfield.
