Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine on Sunday urged the Trump administration to reconsider eliminating the temporary protected status (TPS) of Haitian migrants following the Extreme Court’s recent decision.
When speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, DeWine noted that Haitians in Ohio are working in manufacturing, food service, and health care positions, and that removing these workers from Ohio and elsewhere in the United States is “not in our own self-interest.”
“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.”
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York also said on Thursday that removing Haitians from healthcare positions in that state — where Haitians hold more than 100,000 healthcare jobs — would create a crisis in hospitals, nursing homes and in the disabilities community.
Haiti is also clearly not a safe place with widespread gang violence, DeWine added.
DeWine says that Republican mayors and lawmakers in districts and cities with large Haitian populations are in favor of extending TPS, and that the Trump administration should separate the Extreme Court’s ruling and public policy.