Springfield, Ohio feels the empty chairs: jobs unfilled, about 30 Haitians detained

Springfield, Ohio is living the national TPS story at street level. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians built new lives in this city of factories and warehouses; since the protection ended, local reporting counts about 30 Haitian immigrants currently detained by ICE, while Homeland Security officials have put total arrests in Springfield at at least 380 since enforcement began. Work permits and driver's licences tied to TPS have ended, and some residents have left town or stopped leaving their homes altogether.

The removals have names and faces locally. Five Haitians from Springfield were deported to Haiti after the status ended, according to Theresa Hice-Fromille, a board member of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, speaking to Ohio reporters — among nearly 500 people sent back in the wider removals. Earlier, the Associated Press reported that a Haitian pastor and another man were detained by immigration authorities in the city.

The economic hole is visible on Main Street. Employers say they cannot find takers for the cook, dishwasher and babysitting jobs Haitian workers filled. “Now, we are all struggling. There are no people,” said Arturo Bojhay, owner of the El Canario auto repair shop. Households still here are cutting back, some reducing electricity use as they weigh bills against an uncertain future.

The community response is just as visible. Churches and the Haitian Community Help and Support Center are handing out food boxes and diapers, paying rent for families, and organising respite care for children whose parents are detained. Some residents have gone further, converting basements and spare bedrooms into shelter for families afraid of raids, the New York Times has reported. Nonprofits are preparing more rental and food support if deportations widen.

It is, as one support-center worker put it, a situation beyond their capacity — and they are doing it anyway.