People of all ages lined the road beside the Cincinnati Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Blue Ash, Ohio, Sunday morning. They came singing and carrying signs protesting plans to begin deporting hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants who've just lost their Temporary Protected Status.
Haitian immigrants began receiving letters in late July, summoning them to appear for meetings with ICE officials.
Bethany Rogers of Cincinnati says she was compelled to participate in Sunday's gathering because change can't happen if people stay at home.
“I came to bear witness to the great wrong that's being done to people who came here for a better life and had the rug pulled out from under them,” she told WVXU. It doesn't make humanitarian sense. It doesn't make economic sense. It's purely for ideology.”
As people walked the long path to the entrance, usually escorted by either a legal or religious leader, the crowd turned to wave and shout support and encouragement. Several people waved back, some could be seen wiping tears from their eyes.
The Reverend Amy Snow is a minister serving at Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati.
“Haitians are our neighbors, and the scripture is very clear that we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. That was what Jesus said was the most important thing: to love God and love your neighbor,” she said.
She questions why appointments with ICE were scheduled for Sunday morning, adding she feels the process is being done “under the table.”
Some meetings lasted longer than others. People emerged with future court or meeting dates, and wearing ankle monitors.
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Springfield Haitian Support Center, calls the monitors a scare tactic.
“You know where I live, if you ask for me, I show up. I am open for any type of court hearing, I think that this type of treatment of putting an ankle monitor [on people] is just like trying to bring back the memory of slavery,” Dorsainvil said.
While displaced Haitians are currently in a legal limbo with the ending of TPS and the loss of work permits, he says they aren't hiding. He also notes, they’ve followed all the rules and committed no crimes. These are people, he said, who are here because they had no other choice, and many almost certainly face being killed by the gangs that have overrun Haiti if they're forced to return.
“The American people have to know that if we are here, it is because the foreign policies of those big countries have failed our country and make it a hell for us not to be able to live in there. If you put my house on fire, you would have expected that I would come to your yard. That's the reality,” he said.
Lou Ann and Norm Horstman live in Springfield and have been working with displaced Haitians living in their community for two years.
“These people who have no transportation, who have lost their jobs — these are our neighbors. We wanted to accompany them down here [today],” Norm Horstman said. “People are worried to shop, so you worry about food. They're worried to go out to doctors' appointments, and again, these are the people who we work with. These are our kids' friends.”
Lou Ann Horstman said her grandson’s basketball team was forced to forfeit games because their Haitian teammates didn’t feel safe to show up.
The Horstmans say they’re appalled at how their neighbors are being treated, calling it a “betrayal.”
“They have done everything right, done everything they were asked to do, have complied in every possible way, and then with the ending of TPS, they just [have] to go. Even though we all know, our State Department knows, that Haiti's not safe. They can't return. They're left with no options, and we're responsible for that. We are responsible for what we're doing to them and to their children,” she said.
After the vigil, the Horstmans stayed behind with some members of Ignite Peace. They huddled just outside the facility’s front door as a light rain fell, praying for their Haitian neighbors and the people inside.
Another vigil is planned for next Sunday morning.
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