Haitian immigrants in Springfield who recently lost their legal protection are being ordered to report to a federal immigration office and, once there, are being fitted with electronic ankle monitors, according to local advocates who say the practice has spread fear through a community already reeling from the end of Temporary Protected Status.
The reports were first detailed by NBC4 (WCMH) in Columbus, whose journalists Katie Millard and Jesse Bethea spoke with community leaders and reviewed a copy of a call-in letter attributed to the Department of Homeland Security.
Vilès Dorsainvil, who leads Springfield’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center, described the toll in stark terms. He told NBC4 it was humiliating to watch parents who had committed no crime end up with monitoring devices strapped to their ankles, and said the practice had generated widespread anxiety. In a separate interview with the Dayton Daily News, Dorsainvil said the shame runs deep enough that recipients hesitate to let their children see the devices — and that the children, in turn, ask their parents whether they have done something wrong.
The notices instruct recipients to appear in person at an ICE office and to bring, in the letter’s words, any and all immigration documents. According to the Dayton Daily News, which reviewed the letters, recipients are told to ask for the duty officer on arrival and to keep the appointment; anyone unable to attend is directed to write out a reason, sign the notice, and return it to the office immediately.
The timing has been abrupt. Dorsainvil said many people are receiving the letters only shortly before their scheduled appointment — in some cases, the same day — and that those who cannot appear are being told to scan and email an explanation within 24 hours. His center has advised recipients to comply, warning that missing an appointment can trigger automatic removal proceedings. More than 15 people had contacted the organization about the letters, he said, and on a single day this week, his group heard from ten.
There is some divergence in the public accounts over exactly which office is involved. NBC4 and the Dayton Daily News reported that the notices direct people to Cincinnati; public radio station WYSO reported that Haitians were being sent to the ICE office in Blue Ash, a Cincinnati suburb. Both accounts place the check-ins in the greater Cincinnati area, roughly an hour and a half south of Springfield. Dorsainvil told WYSO he had personally driven more than a dozen former TPS holders to their appointments, each carrying a full set of immigration paperwork.
Advocates say the check-ins are also compressing people’s court timelines. During the appointments, according to Dorsainvil, individuals are being assigned new hearing dates roughly a month away, regardless of when their original court dates had been set.
ICE declined to address the specifics. In a statement to NBC4, an agency spokesperson said ICE would not comment on current or future operations and did not answer questions about the letters or the ankle monitors.
The agency, however, did defend the underlying policy shift in pointed language. The spokesperson characterized Temporary Protected Status as a program that was never meant to be permanent, and that had, in the government’s view, come to function as a de facto amnesty — framing the end of Haiti’s designation as a closing of that window. Congress created TPS in 1990 to shield nationals of countries deemed too dangerous for return; it confers work authorization and protection from deportation, but not a path to permanent residence.
At the state level, Gov. Mike DeWine said federal officials had assured him they were not planning to raid Springfield or to mount targeted operations against Haitian residents. Asked specifically about the call-in letters, his office said it could not vouch for their authenticity.
DeWine, a Republican who has spent decades in humanitarian work, has repeatedly cautioned that removing Springfield’s Haitian population would damage the local economy and harm the people those workers serve. He has argued that pulling large numbers of residents out of Ohio communities would ripple outward, hurting not only those forced to leave but the neighbors, employers, and clients who depend on them.
He has also questioned the premise that Haiti is safe for return. The U.S. State Department places Haiti under its most severe travel warning, urging Americans not to travel there because of kidnapping, violent crime, sexual assault, and civil unrest — an advisory that sits awkwardly beside the federal determination that the country no longer warrants TPS.
The workforce numbers behind DeWine’s concern are substantial. Springfield, a Clark County city that had lost population for decades as manufacturing jobs vanished, saw its labor force expand by more than 10,000 workers as Haitian immigrants settled there. Local faith leaders have credited that growth with reopening long-shuttered storefronts and reviving parts of the city’s economy.
How Springfield got here
The community became a national flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign, when Donald Trump and JD Vance amplified false and racially charged claims about Haitian residents — assertions local officials rejected as baseless. The scrutiny never fully receded.
Haitians first received TPS after the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, and the designation was extended in 2021 following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the collapse of order that followed. The protection ended for Haiti on Monday, July 27, after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate it; work authorization lapsed days later. What remains for thousands of Springfield families is a set of rapid, disorienting changes — the loss of a job, the loss of a driver’s license, and, for a growing number, a monitor fastened to the ankle.
CTN produced this report using an in-house AI tool trained on our own reporting and archives. A CTN editor verified and finalized it before publication.
This article was originally written in English. Other language versions are produced using AI translation software, and errors are possible — the English version is authoritative. CTN also uses AI to convert text into audio.
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Source: www.daytondailynews.com
