Pets of Springfield, rejoice! DHS is coming for suspended-status Haitians after Biden judge takes 'the L'



Owing to their nation's Temporary Protected Status, hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants have avoided deportation despite greatly adding to the strain on American resources in places such as the blue-collar city of Springfield, Ohio, where they were accused by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump of "eating the pets of the people that live there."

After a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the activist judge who initially held up the process has finally conceded that the Trump administration can start giving Haitian migrants the boot.

How it started

The Trump administration announced last summer that Haiti's TPS was, after 16 years, finally coming to an end, having determined that the Caribbean nation no longer meets the conditions for special status, owing largely to significant improvements in domestic safety and stability.

'You don't have status inside this country any more.'

The revocation was, however, held up in the courts.

In Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes — a foreign-born, Biden-appointed, lesbian judge who previously worked as a lawyer to fight the first Trump administration's immigration policy and helped the U.N. secure asylum for so-called refugees — gave her fellow immigration activists cause to hope on Feb. 2, blocking the revocation of Haiti's TPS.

Reyes, originally from Uruguay, claimed that former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem not only violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause when terminating the TPS designation for Haiti but had likely done so "because of hostility to non-white immigrants."

RELATED: Trump-hating Republican governors conspire with Democrats to smuggle in even more migrants

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After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined in March to block Reyes' ruling and kept Haiti's special status in place, the government kicked the matter up to the nation's highest court.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered the Trump administration a huge victory, overturning the lower court's ruling.

In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito rejected the suggestion that race was a motivating factor behind the TPS revocation and emphasized that the "TPS statute plainly bars consideration of respondents' non-constitutional claims."

How it's going

In the wake of the Supreme Court making mincemeat out of her ruling, Reyes issued an order on Wednesday acknowledging the reversal of her judgment and what it necessarily entails.

The foreign-born judge, who previously had a great deal to say about the matter, kept her admission of defeat brief, noting that her stay of termination "is no longer in effect."

Despite Reyes' insinuation that the government was waiting on her say-so, James Percival, general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, noted, "Haiti TPS ended when the Supreme Court mandate issued on July 27. I will give Judge Reyes kudos though for taking the L with grace and not doing something bonkers like many of her colleagues."

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued a message to Haitians with suspended special statuses: "We're going after them right now. We are giving them an opportunity to either leave on their own, and we'll help you, or we'll arrest you and send you back."

"Either way, you don't have status inside this country any more," continued Mullin. "That has been litigated. The courts spoke very clearly. We knew that we were going to win this because in its name itself it says, 'Temporary Protected Status.'"

Steve Foster, the immigration policy coordinator for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, told ABC News, "Haitians with TPS, regardless of whether they have a pending asylum claim, have gotten a 'DHS Call-In Letter' to appear at ICE offices in person."

Foster said that some Haitians have reportedly been assigned future court dates and given ankle monitors.

These efforts are reportedly under way in Springfield — an Ohio city that has in recent years heard allegations of Haitians eating pets and wildlife and seen a significant spike in Haitian-caused traffic accidents.

In 2024, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue admitted that the tens of thousands of Haitians who had recently poured into his city — a city that had a population of just over 58,000 in 2020 — "taxed" the "infrastructure of the city, our safety forces, our hospitals, our schools." According to the city, there were more than 15,000 migrants presently residing in Clark County alone.

Viles Dorsainvil, the head of a Haitian support group in Springfield, confirmed the government's efforts to get the ball rolling on Haitian migrants' ouster.

"We are just helping these folks to go to this appointment, and when they get there, they interview them and eventually put [an] ankle monitor on them," said Dorsainvil.

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Angered activists storm out of meeting with Biden administration: 'Reached a turning point'



Immigration activists stormed out of a meeting with top Biden administration officials on Saturday, apparently upset that President Joe Biden is breaking yet another campaign promise.

What is the background?

During his campaign, Biden promised to end former President Donald Trump's "remain in Mexico policy," which is officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols. Trump created the policy to end so-called "catch-and-release," where migrants seeking asylum in America are released into the U.S. while their case progresses through the immigration court system.

Biden initially made good on his promise. On his first day in office, Biden suspended the policy. The Biden administration formally ended the policy this summer.

However, the Supreme Court ruled in August that Biden needed to reinstate the policy. The administration announced Friday they would reinstate the policy to comply with federal court rulings.

What happened now?

Immigration activist met virtually with top members of the Biden administration on Saturday, including Homeland Security officials and the White House Domestic Policy Council's Esther Olavarria, Politico reported.

At some point, "dozens" of activists stormed out of the meeting, angry over Biden's broken promises. The activist were reportedly upset that Biden will enforce the "remain in Mexico" policy.

Before leaving the meeting, the activist accused Biden of "playing politics with human lives." The activists reportedly said, "We have sadly reached a turning point."

"I cannot stand one more meeting of them pretending," Ariana Saludares, who attended the meeting, told Politico. "They give us accolades on the outside, but on the inside, we're having to take out the metaphoric knives from our back."

"It's almost like we were bamboozled into thinking that this was going to be the best option, and it isn't. It's actually worse," she added. "It is as if you know that your family is now turning against you and telling you that it's okay. It's not."

Luis Guerra, who also left the meeting, said, "We don't actually believe they're doing everything in their power to actually restore asylum at the border, the way that they say that they're trying to."

How did the Biden admin respond?

The White House attempted to sooth tensions with activists by reaffirming the Biden administration's disagreement with MPP.

"The Biden Administration has been very clear that MPP is not an immigration policy we agree with or support. That's why the Department of Homeland Security immediately appealed the court injunction once it was ordered," a White House official told Politico.

"We are incredibly thankful and appreciative of the work immigration advocates and organizations do around the clock to improve our immigration system," the official added.

Liberal activists decry red state border security efforts as 'invasion,' 'insurrection' in letter to Biden



A major immigrant activist group is calling on President Joe Biden to put down growing efforts by Republican governors to send law enforcement personnel from their own states to fight illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling the endeavor an "invasion" and "insurrection."

What are the details?

Over the last several weeks, governors in Arizona, Arkansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Idaho, Florida, and South Dakota have sent law enforcement personnel down to the country's southern border in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's request.

Abbot, in a letter sent to all 50 governors last month, asked states to send "all available law enforcement resources" to the border "in defense of our sovereignty and territorial integrity."

But on Sunday, Independence Day, the League of United Latin American Citizens sent a letter to the White House urging the president to use executive authority to order an immediate stop to the efforts, calling it an illegal "pay for hire" scheme.

"We told the President in no uncertain terms, this is an insurrection by recalcitrant and rebellious states that must be stopped," LULAC National President Domingo Garcia said in a news release. "This unilateral action by governors hijacks the Emergency Assistance Management Compact (EMAC) and involves our armed forces in a 'pay for hire' scheme, funded in part by private donations."

Garcia went on to accuse Abbott and former President Donald Trump of "fomenting dangerous racial hatred targeting Latinos" in their recent visit to the border.

"LULAC cannot say strongly enough that this militia action must be dealt with before it spreads," he added.

What else?

Rodolfo Rosales, Jr., the group's state director for Texas, ironically decried the border security efforts as an invasion. That term, however, was not employed to describe the situation taking place at the border as unprecedented numbers of migrants continue to rush into the country in hopes of lenient treatment from the Biden administration.

"This is insane!" Rosales Jr. said. "We are being invaded by governors of the defeated confederacy to arm the border against brown women and children escaping political persecution, hunger, and death.

"These governors are using the sacred chain of command to mobilize forces meant to defend us from military invasion by a foreign nation, as mercenaries to save white people from the brown threat," he exclaimed.

In the letter, LULAC argued that the deployment of National Guard troops and other law enforcement is a breach of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, an agreement that allows one jurisdiction to send assistance to another.

Republican governors, on the other hand, have maintained that their assistance is needed due to the federal government's failure to secure the border.

Just last week, Democrats unveiled plans to bring border wall funding to zero even while spending $870 billion on border security measures in the Middle East.