ICE launched targeted enforcement operation against Haitian migrants in Ohio as TPS expired, planning rapid deportation flights

On July 26, 2026, CBS News reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had developed a targeted enforcement operation against Haitian migrants in Ohio, timed to the expiration of Temporary Protected Status. Internal agency documents reviewed by CBS News and two ICE officials who spoke anonymously confirmed plans to concentrate operations on the Springfield, Ohio area — home to one of the largest Haitian communities in the country — with a directive to arrest Haitian migrants and quickly place them on deportation flights to crisis-stricken Haiti. The Supreme Court's certified judgment authorizing TPS termination for Haitians and Syrians had reached lower courts earlier that week, triggering the enforcement plan.

The operation was designed for rapid removal, compressing the window available to affected individuals to seek legal counsel or file claims contesting deportation. The Department of Homeland Security publicly stated it "does not discuss ongoing or future operations" and directed those losing TPS to self-deport, offering a $2,600 payment and airfare. Press-freedom and immigrant-rights advocates noted that Haiti remained in crisis — marked by gang violence and political instability — and that U.S. enforcement had historically limited deportation flights to Cap-Haïtien rather than Port-au-Prince due to conditions on the ground.

The enforcement campaign continued a documented pattern of administration targeting of Haitian communities in Ohio that had intensified since 2024, when then-vice-presidential candidate JD Vance spread false claims about Haitian residents in Springfield. Municipal and school officials in Springfield braced for disruption: administrators estimated that between 5 and 40 percent of students in some district buildings were immigrants, and approximately 20 percent of the district's 1,400 students lacked citizenship documents.

Updates

2026-08-04 — DHS began fitting ankle monitors on Haitian TPS holders in Ohio [3]

Former Haitian TPS holders in Ohio began receiving DHS letters summoning them to in-person appointments, where federal officials fitted them with ankle monitors, Scripps News reported. Nazly Mamedova of the American Immigration Lawyers Association said the practice alarmed the community; DHS's general counsel confirmed the underlying TPS cancellation. The move continued the enforcement operation against Haitian TPS holders documented above.

2026-08-05 — Judge lifted injunction, Haiti TPS formally lapsed; nationwide arrests and deportations proceeded [4, 5, 6]

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes confirmed on August 5, 2026 that her order blocking DHS from ending Temporary Protected Status for Haiti was no longer in effect, following the Supreme Court's June ruling restricting judicial review of DHS's TPS decisions. TPS for roughly 350,000 Haitians formally lapsed the same day, leaving them vulnerable to detention and deportation to a country the administration itself described as dangerous. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the department was "going after them right now," telling affected Haitians to "self-deport or we'll arrest you and send you back." Arrests and deportations proceeded nationwide as the legal shield was removed, continuing the targeted enforcement operation in Springfield, Ohio documented above.

2026-08-14 — Formal mandatory check-in and ankle-monitor regime confirmed for Springfield Haitians [7]

Haitians in Springfield began receiving letters requiring them to report to ICE offices in Blue Ash or Westerville, Ohio, where officers collected their passports and fitted them with GPS ankle monitors with an approximately 75-mile radius, Ohio Capital Journal reported, citing local pastor Carl Ruby. Only Haitians in Springfield — not the broader roughly 30,000 Haitian TPS holders in central Ohio — were subject to the monitors as of the report, and affected individuals were told to report back to ICE every three to four weeks.

2026-08-21 — ICE began physically detaining Haitians in Springfield, at least 29 confirmed [8]

ICE moved beyond the ankle-monitor/check-in regime to physically detaining Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio Capital Journal reported. Haitian Community Help and Support Center board member Theresa Hice-Fromille confirmed at least 29 people detained as of Friday, August 21, 2026, with agents detaining people at shopping plazas, apartment complexes, a car wash, and a gas station. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue publicly acknowledged "federal immigration enforcement activity occurring in Springfield, including arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement," and said ICE indicated targeted enforcement activity would continue throughout Ohio. Detained individuals were being sent to Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio.

2026-08-20 — Two more named Springfield pastors detained by ICE amid continuing operation [9, 10]

ICE agents detained Pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien, 41, at a South Limestone Street gas station in Springfield on August 20, 2026; he was held at Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio. A second, unnamed pastor from First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield was separately detained "last week" while in Northwest Ohio and may already have been deported, according to fellow Springfield pastor Carl Ruby. Local clergy and the Haitian Support Center publicly called for the pastors' release; Ruby described the community as "under siege." More than 40 Haitians in Springfield had been detained as of the report, up from the at least 29 confirmed on August 21.

2026-08-31 — Haitian student wearing ICE ankle monitor died after reported bullying [11, 12]

Wright State University first-year student Pierre Damas Bel, 20, died on the morning of August 31, 2026 after walking into traffic on Interstate 70 near Springfield, after calling his father to say he was struggling mentally because of bullying over the ICE-mandated ankle monitor he had worn since late July following the loss of Temporary Protected Status. His father, Pierre Ronal Bel, said "they treated my son like an animal"; Ohio Governor Mike DeWine called the death "a horrible, horrible tragedy." Pastor Carl Ruby, previously quoted in this entry's own Updates, said Bel had been teased by fellow students over the monitor and attributed the death to "inhumane immigration policies."