Respect Our Families and Children, ICE Out of Ohio Communities!
Cross-posted from the Children Thrive Action Network
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As Ohio communities face the uncertainty of the future of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, and the threat of an immigration abduction operation, members of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) stand in solidarity with Haitian families who call Ohio home, and demand federal immigration agents get out of their communities.
On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s decision to terminate Haiti’s TPS designation — but fear and uncertainty remain as immigration agents continue to conduct their activities in Ohio communities, including in a Dayton high school.
With approximately 15,000 Haitians in Springfield alone, Haitian families are integral members of their communities in Ohio and across the country. An estimated 260,790 Haitian nationals in the United States stand to lose their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) if the administration wins the legal battle — a group of individuals who contribute $3.4 billion to the economy each year. One in four children in the United States has at least one foreign-born parent; among these children, the majority are U.S. citizens, and 260,000 are children of TPS holders.
Said Viles Dorsainvil, Executive Director of the Haitian Community Help & Support Center in Springfield, Ohio, “Haitians have come to Ohio to work and raise their families, with love and hope in their hearts. They contribute to our communities and strengthen the economy. But now they are afraid. They see what is happening across the country and fear that it will happen to them next, even as the termination of Haiti TPS is delayed. It is cruel for government agents to tear people from their homes and bring more trauma to families who have overcome so much to escape violence and insecurity in Haiti. We and our children deserve to have our humanity and dignity respected. We should be able to safely remain in this city we call home.”
Added Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, “Let’s think about this for a moment. Let it sink in. Our federal government is trying to cancel legal immigration programs in order to make more people deportable. Many of these people are parents. If they lose their status, they will be deported to Haiti, and have to decide if they take their kids with them, or leave them here to grow up in a safer country. What choice would you make, as a parent? Which is the right decision? Both are bad, and none of this has to happen. The U.S. government could continue Haitians’ legal status, instead. It’s the easiest option! Let these kids grow up with intact, loving families, in a safe and vibrant community. If we value human life and care about kids, then we know what we need to do. Reject ICE, reject mass deportation, and continue legal status for Haitians. Ohio is home, and many Ohioans are glad that people from other countries choose to live here. They help make our state a better place.”
Concluded Wendy Cervantes, Director of Immigration and Immigrant Families at the Center for Law and Social Policy, “For the past year, children in TPS families have been living in uncertainty regarding their families’ immigration status. While we celebrate this temporary halt to the administration’s termination of Haiti TPS, it does not ultimately remove the limbo that Haitian families have been forced to endure. Haitian TPS holders in Ohio and elsewhere followed the federal governments’ processes to stay on track with their immigration status. The administration’s attempt to un-document them and plans to send federal agents to round them up is not ‘immigration enforcement’ — it is yet another cruel attack on families. The federal government should never be responsible for orphaning children or terrorizing deeply-rooted families. ICE must get out of Ohio and all of our nation’s communities.”
Resources
Supporting Immigrant Children: Resources for Ohio Child Providers and Practitioners (Case Western Reserve University Schubert Center for Child Studies)
Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home — impact of deportation on children and families in Ohio (Lynn Tramonte, OIA and Suma Setty, CLASP)
Protecting Every Student’s Right to Education (Honesty for Ohio Education)
Afterthoughts: The Children of Deported Parents (Children Thrive Action Network)
The Day That ICE Came: How Worksite Raids Are Once Again Harming Children and Families (CLASP)
