Trump Doesn't Take Over 'Til The 20th, But He's Already Ruining Peoples' Lives— Like Ohio's Haitians

No Surprise: It's Not Just Latinos Trump Wants To Drive Out Of The Country

It must've slipped DeWine's mind that his party is deeply racist and xenophobic

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s career is inexorably tied to Springfield and has always lived within 20 minutes from that small Clark County city. In fact, he was born in Springfield 78 years ago (this past Sunday) and grew up in nearby Yellow Springs in Greene County, where he won his first job out of college as County Prosecutor and was then elected to the state Senate. In 1982 he won the open congressional seat that includes Springfield and in 1990 was elected lieutenant governor. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994 and reelected in 2000. He was badly defeated 6 years later by Sherrod Brown. Nine years later he was elected Ohio’s attorney general and then governor in 2018.

Clark and Greene counties have supported DeWine in all his elections. In his last gubernatorial reelection, he won the state with 62.4% and won Clark County with 71%. For comparison’s sake, he’s always done far better there than Trump has:

• 2016- 56.9%

• 2020- 60.6%

• 2024- 63.9% (a big uptick in Trump support since his calumny against their Haitian neighbors)

And he’s been loyal to Springfield. As the city continued along a dismal trajectory, he personally went to Haiti and, through a Port-au-Prince church with which he was affiliated, he began recruiting Haitians to move to Springfield and turn around the city’s decline. It worked and Springfield started showing signs of rebirth and even beginning to thrive, largely due to the thousands of new hard-working immigrants. And then along came Señor T who, with no proof of any kind, spread the lie that the Haitians were eating peoples’ pets and vowed to deport them. The Haitians are legal immigrants… but when has a technicality like that ever stopped Trump?

Just before Christmas Miriam Jordan reported on the state of Ohio’s Haitian community since Trump’s election victory. DeWine’s best laid plans for his hometown have all gone awry. “[T]housands of Haitians,” she wrote, “who in recent years had fled a violent, impoverished country and settled in the town of 60,000, found themselves wondering if they should continue to live in Springfield. Now, many of them fear they may not be able to stay in the United States. Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations and to curtail programs, such as Temporary Protected Status, that have allowed many of the Haitians to remain in the country at least in the short term. And he has promised to target the thousands of Haitians living and working in and around Springfield.”

A report from Benedict Smith over the weekend on the same topic was far worse. Haitians in Springfield and the surrounding towns are desperately looking for places where they and their families will be safe. Boston is a key destination, although thousands of Haitians have moved to New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Vermont and California as well, where they hope Democratic state governments will protect them. “More of Ohio’s sizeable Haitian population,’ wrote Smith, “is preparing to follow.”

Darvah Germaine, a Haitian who runs a restaurant in Springfield, is one of those who are thinking about leaving if the exodus continues.

After moving to the town a few years ago, he set up the restaurant with his wife, Keket, for the new arrivals looking for a taste of home as they took jobs and bought houses on the south side of town.

For a long time, life was good, as the business’s fortunes rose along with the swell of the area’s Haitian population.

Just weeks ago, it was filled with customers who would sit down at tables for generous portions of goat or snapper heaped with plantain, rice and salads.

Mr Germaine would size up customers and occasionally warn them they wouldn’t be able to eat it all.

Others came for the Italian meals— meatballs and linguine in alfredo sauce— with a Haitian twist.

There are no cats or dogs on the menu, despite Trump’s claims. The closest it gets is a Coney Island-style hot dog.

But according to Germaine, the Republican’s election win caused panic among the Haitian population and thousands have already left Springfield.

The restaurant’s prospects went with them.

“The town is kind of gone now. It’s dead,” he said, glancing around a deserted dining room where the only movement is the blinking lights on the slot machines. “It used to be full in here— I don’t know how far we can go with the way it is right now.”

Of the eight staff that Keket Bongou employed, six have left. Luckily, there are no customers to serve— so the staff shortage is not an issue, he said wryly.

Germaine, who moved from Haiti to Florida in the 1980s, is not at risk of deportation, but Keket and his step-daughter are.

Like many Haitians, they came to the US on the temporary protected status (TPS) scheme that is scheduled to lapse in 2026.

Mr Trump may decline to extend it and Tom Homan, his immigration tsar, has suggested he could end it on the first day of the new administration— although this would almost certainly prompt a legal challenge.

“They’re scared. They’re really scared of that. Keket’s daughter, she wants to move,” Germaine said.

There had been suggestions that DeWine recruit white immigrants instead of Haitians. Albania and Armenia are two countries where the wait-lists to emigrate are long and places fiercely contested. Problem though is that there is virtually no crime among DeWine’s church-going Haitians and… Albanian and Armenian immigrants have a different reputation, deserved or not.

The perception that Albanian immigrants are disproportionately involved in criminal activities stem from crime stats in Albania and other countries with Albanian populations. Rampant Albanian organized crime has been documented since the fall of communism in the early 1990s. The Albanian mafia has been linked to activities like drug trafficking, human smuggling and extortion both within Albania and internationally. Reports suggest that Albanian criminal groups have strong networks in several countries, including Italy, France and the UK— and more recently, in New York, contributing to a stereotype of Albanian immigrants being involved in crime. In the UK, Albanian migrants have been highlighted in media reports for criminal activities, particularly related to the drug trade and violent crimes. Statistical data from the UK shows that Albanians have been significantly overrepresented in the prison population, with reports indicating they make up a disproportionate percentage of foreign national offenders despite being a small fraction of the UK population. There is evidence suggesting that Albanian criminal networks are active in several countries, including the UK and the US, focusing on activities like human trafficking, drug smuggling and other organized crimes. 

The Armenian diaspora is huge and there are at least a million people in the U.S. who are immigrants from Armenia or the children of immigrants. While not as extensively covered as Albanian crime, Armenian organized crime, particularly related to the “thieves in law” (vory v zakone), has historical roots. Modern Armenian criminal networks are less about controlling territories and more about specific criminal activities like human trafficking, cybercrime and large-scale fraud schemes. One significant event that contributed to the criminal stereotype was the case of Armenians involved in Medicare fraud in the US. In 2010, a large number of Armenians were charged in what was described as one of the largest Medicare frauds ever— though not as significant as Rick Scott’s Medicare fraud case— which led to a negative spotlight on the community. Reports on human trafficking from Armenia, including sex and labor trafficking, have also played a role in developing a narrative that paints Armenian immigrants as criminals.

Meanwhile, where is DeWine today as the Haitians are self-deporting from the Springfield area? Everyone knows he's sympathetic to the Haitians' desperate plight but... let's face it, he's a Republican politician and he's gone real quiet on the subject as he finishes his last term in office.