When do Haitians get to stop running?
The hatred, the lies, the bigotry — it gets so old. It’s also dangerous and disgusting.
Sylvania-native Geoff Pipoly said, “I really wish that we didn’t have to talk about President Trump and what he said [about Haitians], because the fact that he’s involved in this case [the Supreme Court case Miot v. Trump] gives some people the idea that we’re just suing because we don’t like the President. Our point here is not that we don’t like the President. The point here is that people are going to die. Regardless of the reason that’s happening, that’s wrong, and we’re going to try to stop it.”
The Toledo Blade just published a great piece about Pipoly and his role defending Haitian and Syrian-Ohioans from death. He’s one of the key lawyers fighting against the President’s efforts to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians due to racist and other illegal reasons (read behind paywall).
“You don’t have to come from a major stage to reach a major stage,” Camie Berard told the Blade. She want to junior high and high school with Pipoly in Sylvania, Ohio, and was interviewed about his role arguing against the President’s termination of TPS before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A graduate of Northview High School, Pipoly works for Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Chicago. Miot vs. Trump is one of two class action lawsuits challenging the administration’s attempts to revoke TPS for Haitians and Syrians. The Trump administration has been steadily losing in court, but no one can predict what the U.S. Supreme Court will decide.
However, it’s crystal clear that the President’s goal of ending TPS for Haitians was driven by abject racism, which is a violation of the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The President himself has been outspoken and loud on this point, in both of his terms by:
Referring to Haiti (and African nations) as “shithole countries.”
Falsely stating that Haitians coming to the U.S. “probably have AIDS”; are “savage criminal aliens”; and are destroying Springfield, Ohio’s way of life — which couldn’t be further from the truth. The city went through an adjustment period that was made more challenging because of the way public schools are funded in this country (terribly), and the lack of federal and state support for housing and population shifts. Now, it is widely recognized that Haitians have saved what was once a dying town. Today, though, Springfield’s future in uncertain because a large percentage of its population may have to leave suddently.
Spreading the offensive and false claim that Haitians in Springfield eat cats and dogs, sparking threats and violence against Haitians in Ohio and around the country.
“The bottom line is that the President’s rhetoric about immigrants gets much more aggressive the darker your skin gets,” said Pipoly. In fact, according to The Blade, “only 300 out of 350,000, or less than a tenth of a percent, of Haitian immigrants under TPS have ever been investigated for a crime.” In contrast, 2% of white U.S. Americans were actually arrested for committing crimes between May 2025 and May 2026, according to the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
More proof that President Trump’s decision was made based on racism is the fact that Haiti is not a safe country to live in, for anyone. Sending people back to Haiti is a certain death sentence for many of them. Haitians been saving their lives and looking for a safe place to live for years. When do they get to stop running?
Less than a month ago, Trump’s own State Department renewed its Level 4 - Do Not Travel advisory for Haiti, telling American citizens who do go there against the government’s advice to “prepare a will” and “have a plan to leave in an emergency that does not depend on U.S. government help.”
“Choose one family member to serve as the point of contact,” the advisory states. “If you are kidnapped or taken hostage, that person can communicate with kidnappers or hostage-takers, media, U.S. or foreign government agencies, and members of Congress.” The danger is not only for U.S. Americans, of course. Haitians are murdered every day.
Writes The Blade:
Members of Pastor Carl Ruby’s Springfield, Ohio, congregation have survived gang violence, kidnapping attempts, and, in one case, intimidation tactics that include finding a lifelong friend’s decapitated body on their front porch.
Mr. Pipoly sees the mental effects this leaves on the Haitians he represents. One moment, conversation is easy-going, casual, and normal. But when Haiti is brought up, “it’s like a PTSD switch goes on in their head,” he said.
Any cheerfulness is replaced by a flat tone and a thousand-yard stare.
“They’ve compartmentalized all that,” Mr. Pipoly said. “A dozen people or more on all nonconsecutive occasions, same exact experience. These people are terrified — and with good reason.”
Haiti currently has one of the highest murder rates in the world. In February, the bodies of four decapitated women were found along the Dominican Republic’s border with Haiti.
“If it was Club Med right now, there would be several hundred thousand people who would probably prefer to be there and not here, but they can’t go back because it's not safe,” Mr. Pipoly said.
We have heard this ourselves, talking to Haitians in Ohio and other states. They love their country. They carry joyful memories. The miss the food, family, the clothing, parties, music. We have been lucky to experience some of it here. But there is nothing like home.
Haitians have set out to find a safe place to live and raise their families not because they wanted to, but because they had to. They’ve gone to Brazil. Chile. Mexico. The United States. Many people in Ohio would like this to be the place they get to stop moving and settle in. Bring their families. Take a breath. When will it happen for them?
From The Blade:
“These are our neighbors. They attend our churches. They sit next to us in pews on Sunday mornings, and we have grown to love them,” Pastor Ruby said. “It’s unbearable for me to think of some of these families and children being sent back to a place where they may lose their lives.”
Some Haitian immigrants are stockpiling canned and dry goods to avoid leaving the house. Hundreds of families with U.S.-born children have contacted authorities to pre-emptively set up foster care in the event of their deportation.
“That’s how bad Haiti is. A parent, faced with the choice of having to take their child there, would rather give their child up to a stranger,” Mr. Pipoly said. “When I first heard that news, I will admit that I just sobbed. I cannot imagine having to make that choice as a parent. I just can’t imagine.”
Read the Toledo Blade story “Sylvania native represents Haitian immigrants before Supreme Court” (behind paywall).
