(Bloomberg) — The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency plans to ramp up operations to arrest Haitian immigrants whose Temporary Protected Status is expected to end soon, Fox News reports, citing federal sources.
The TPS program allows immigrants from countries in natural or man-made crises to remain in the US until conditions stabilize. The Supreme Court ruled in June that President Donald Trump could revoke that status independently. Haitians have been living in the US under TPS since 2010, when an earthquake killed an estimated 300,000 people.
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Federal agents are planning to target Springfield, Ohio, which has a large population of Haitian immigrants, Fox reported. The city became a flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign when Vice President JD Vance spread an unfounded conspiracy theory that Haitians were stealing people’s pets and eating them. ICE leadership has been notified of the operational plans, the sources told Fox News.
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ICE did not respond to a request for comment when contacted outside of normal business hours.
Deportation of undocumented immigrants has been a key promise of Trump’s second term and has been at times controversial with large protests across the nation after federal agents killed at least four people, including American citizens, over the last year.