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Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine (R) on Sunday called on the Trump administration to reconsider pushing for the elimination of temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitian migrants following the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the program.
The high court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration can remove thousands of Haitians and Syrians who currently have TPS, which allows immigrants from certain countries to live in the U.S. legally with a pathway to work authorization.
“What I would hope is the Trump administration would reconsider this,” Dewine told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an appearance on “State of the Union.” “Look at how it’s going to impact states like Ohio. In Ohio, the Haitians are working primarily in manufacturing, they’re also working in the food area.”
He added that the “most important” area of work for Haitian migrants is healthcare.
“It’s Haitians who, many times, are taking care of your mom or your dad who has Alzheimer’s, taking care of family members who might be in a nursing home,” the governor said. “And to say we’re going to pull all those [people] out, it’s just not in our own self-interest.”
Dewine cited Ohio Republican mayors and lawmakers with large Haitian populations in their districts and municipalities who advocate in favor of extending TPS.
The governor said Haiti’s “clearly” not safe, given all of the State Department travel advisories and warnings in place for the country, which has widespread gang violence.
“But the other point is it is not in the United States’ interest, certainly not in Ohio’s interest, to have people who are working every single day, who are supporting a family, who are buying houses, fixing up old houses, starting businesses, and then put deep roots in this country, and really are contributing –– and yank them out,” he said.
Dewine clarified that he accepts the Supreme Court’s decision, but argued that there should be a separation between the ruling and “the issue of public policy.”
“And again, I would hope the Trump administration would reconsider… what they are doing,” Dewine said. “This is an administration that has focused a lot on jobs. These are jobs that are being filled by Haitians who are filling jobs that would not be filled any other way.”
Tapper noted Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) has also emphasized the severe impact that deporting Haitian migrants would have on New York’s health care industry. On Thursday, Lawler said around one-third of the more than 350,000 Haitian TPS holders work in health care.
“Immediately shutting off TPS will create a crisis in our hospitals, nursing homes, and in the I/DD [intellectual and developmental disabilities] community,” he said.
President Trump has long criticized protections for migrants with temporary status and has amplified unfounded claims about Haitians in the U.S. He made the unsubstantiated claim that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating the dogs,” during his one presidential debate with former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
Dewine at the time called the remarks “something that came up on the internet.”
“Look, the mayor … of Springfield says there’s no truth in that,” he added, while speaking with CBS News in August 2024. “They have no evidence of that at all.”
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