Newborn twins sleep peacefully on a recent weekday as their mother initiates paperwork that could change the course of their lives.
Soon, the baby boys will have passports. If their Haitian mother faces deportation, they will be ready to leave their birth country – the United States.
It’s the type of emergency preparation happening in this small Ohio city, where Haitian immigrants are living in uncertainty. Many settled here through a legal designation known as temporary protected status, which the Trump administration is trying to end.
Why We Wrote This
Volunteer-led efforts to support immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are similar to those happening around the United States. For many of the people stepping up, it’s a way to help fellow community members have some control over their lives.
Now, volunteer-led groups – Springfield Neighbors United and Springfield G92 – have formed to counter what some community members and faith leaders see as governmental overreach that could hurt Haitian immigrants living in this once-vibrant manufacturing city. Across the U.S., similar efforts aimed at protecting immigrants are taking shape. Community groups in Los Angeles, for instance, are patrolling neighborhoods and retail areas, looking for signs of potential immigration enforcement activity and alerting community members.
“It’s important that we view this not as opposing Trump, but as standing with the vulnerable in a bold way,” says Carl Ruby, a member of Springfield G92, a coalition of churches, clergy, faith-based organizations, and community advocates.
The senior pastor at Central Christian, a nondenominational church, says he could support compassionate efforts to secure the nation’s borders and deport immigrants with violent criminal records. “But we can’t stand for the deportation of people who came here legally, have done everything they’re supposed to do, are reviving our city, and filling our pews.”
Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor
The volunteer actions – some of which are more grassroots-style than others – come as recent polling suggests more Americans are cooling on President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration approach.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last week shows 40% of voters approve of how the administration is handling immigration issues. That approval drops lower – to 38% – when it comes to deportations. A recent Gallup poll found similar immigration sentiments, though Republican support for Mr. Trump’s approach remains high (85%).
Individual or collective efforts can be “very powerful, actually, and influential,” says Michael Kagan, a law professor and director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He recently spoke with a woman who was grocery shopping for immigrants living in her apartment complex.
In the political realm, people could move the needle on how elected officials and candidates discuss immigration in next year’s midterm elections, Mr. Kagan says. And, on a personal level, outreach by Americans could be a spirit lifter for immigrants.
“They more visibly signal to immigrants in the community that they’re not alone,” he says. “They have neighbors who like and support them.”
“We all continue to be grateful”
President Trump pledged a tough-on-immigration agenda during his campaign and, since taking office for the second time, has pursued mass deportations. His first six months in office have included efforts that range from beefing up the military’s presence at the southern border to rapidly expanding immigrant detention facilities and increasing immigration enforcement actions at workplaces.
In Springfield, it was more a matter of when – not if – the president’s immigration crackdown would reach its large Haitian population. The city was thrust into the national spotlight last year when Mr. Trump and his running mate, now-Vice President JD Vance, amplified a discredited rumor about the community’s Haitian immigrants.
Though the media glare has faded and many Springfield residents support their Haitian neighbors, an undercurrent of tension remains. Government meetings still elicit concerns from community members upset over strained resources they believe are tied to the influx of Haitian immigrants. One resident told PBS NewsHour in the spring that “the line is out the door” for jobs and family services.
Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor
The volunteer efforts have been warmly received by the city’s immigrant population, which feels stuck in a catch-22 situation, says Viles Dorsainvil, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Community Help & Support Center. He says their actions reflect the “nature of the American civil society.”
“We all continue to be grateful … that they did not sit back and let things happen,” Mr. Dorsainvil says.
Personal connections are motivating community members to act at a time when local governments and employers may be wary of a “poke the bear” situation if they speak out, says David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. While it may not change the ideological course of the Trump administration, he says, it creates a ripple effect in other directions.
“It can even help in very practical ways in terms of making sure that people have representation and that people know what their rights are and that there’s a public record of their arrest,” he says.
Last fall, Mr. Trump vowed he would “revoke” temporary protected status for Haitians. TPS, a legal protection, allows certain immigrants to stay in the U.S. given certain conditions in their native countries. Federal officials estimate there are just under 350,000 TPS holders from Haiti residing in the United States.
The Caribbean nation has been racked by political instability, gang violence, and earthquakes. A travel advisory issued by the State Department remains in effect, urging Americans to avoid visiting Haiti given “kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”
Even so, the Department of Homeland Security this summer, after determining the country no longer meets necessary conditions, moved to end TPS for Haiti – an action that was met with litigation and ruled unlawful by a judge. According to the government’s website, TPS for Haiti currently lasts through Feb. 3, 2026. It’s unclear how many Haitians who entered the U.S. under humanitarian parole (another form of legal protection) or gained TPS have applied for or been granted asylum.
An urgency to act
For Springfield residents who have been supporting the city’s Haitian immigrants, a court stay isn’t enough to quell long-term concerns.
The revocation of TPS could morph into a humanitarian crisis if Haitian residents lose their work permits and jobs, go into hiding, and cannot afford rent or groceries, says Casey Rollins, executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Springfield. Another concern: the estimated 1,200 American-born Haitian children under age 4 who live in the city.
What would happen to the babies and toddlers if their parents face deportation and if the Trump administration’s effort to curtail birthright citizenship moves forward?
That question, amid other concerns, has been a driving force for the public-facing and behind-the-scenes work of volunteer groups.
“We just kept shifting gears,” says Ms. Rollins, who also is involved with Springfield G92 and Springfield Neighbors United, an organization helping in ways that existing nonprofits and churches either cannot or don’t have the capacity to do.
Jackie Valley/The Christian Science Monitor
Volunteers from that group have been visiting grocery stores to speak with Haitian and Latino immigrants. They share flyers, written in Haitian Creole and Spanish, with information about preparing for immigration enforcement. Volunteers also help immigrants fill out paperwork to get their children passports and emergency contact information if they become separated.
“We don’t want to wait until the eleventh hour or the thirteenth hour,” Ms. Rollins says. “We want to do it now.”
“At least we can do something”
If immigrants need physical places of refuge, the churches involved in Springfield G92 can step in, Mr. Ruby says. The group – whose name is a nod to the 92 references of “ger,” meaning foreigner or immigrant, in the Old Testament – has also been organizing training sessions that give members advice on topics such as filming immigration raids.
He describes it as “divine obedience,” rather than civil disobedience.
“We believe that deporting people back to a country where their lives are clearly in danger is immoral and unconscionable,” says Mr. Ruby. “We think America can be better.”
Members of Springfield G92 say that a few months ago, many didn’t even know each other. They simply felt called to action.
“A lot of people feel overwhelmed,” member Marjory Wentworth says. “At least we can do something.”
