Ohio must not look away from Haitian families

On Aug 12, 2026

Updated Aug. 12, 2026, 9:59 a.m. ET

There are moments when a community has to decide what it is willing to tolerate. I believe Ohio is in one of those moments right now.

Across our state, Haitian families who came here legally, worked, paid taxes, raised children and built lives are being forced into fear. The federal government ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of detention and deportation. Right here in Blue Ash, people have reported to immigration offices not knowing whether they will walk back out. Some are leaving with ankle monitors strapped to their bodies.

I keep coming back to that image. These are people who have gone to work, taken their kids to school, worshipped and built lives alongside us. The government changed their status, and now we are supposed to accept seeing our neighbors tracked and treated like criminals.

I don’t accept it.

Freedom cannot be selective

And if you aren’t Haitian or an immigrant, consider what we are allowing our government to normalize. Government power rarely stays contained to the first group we allow it against. We decide someone’s rights matter a little less because they weren’t born here, pray differently, or look different from us. Then the circle gets wider.

Just days ago, an Islamic center in Westwood was vandalized. Black Americans know what happens when our existence is criminalized. Women are watching politicians fight over our bodily autonomy. LGBTQ Ohioans know how quickly their freedoms become political targets. Jewish and Muslim Ohioans have watched hatred move from rhetoric into threats and violence.

These struggles are not identical. But they share a warning: Tyranny rises when we become comfortable sacrificing somebody else’s freedom because we assume our own will remain untouched.

Here in Cincinnati, the Ohio River once divided slavery from freedom. Ohioans opened homes and churches through the Underground Railroad because they understood that what was legal and what was morally right were not always the same thing. We like telling those stories because history has rendered its verdict. The harder question is what we do when the choice belongs to us.

We watched Donald Trump and JD Vance turn Springfield’s Haitian community into a political weapon in 2024, spreading grotesque lies followed by bomb threats, school disruptions and fear.

Now their rhetoric has become policy.

Ohio must decide what it will tolerate

Thousands of Haitian Ohioans who filled jobs, opened businesses and strengthened communities are being told they may no longer belong here. Even Gov. Mike DeWine has warned against removing people important to Ohio’s workforce and communities.

Yet Sen. Jon Husted has called this crackdown a victory for “law and order.” Whose victory is it when working Ohioans are ripped from their families and communities? It doesn’t strengthen our economy or encourage investment. There is nothing strong about cheering on cruelty when those paying the price have the least political power to fight back.

Sherrod Brown chose differently. He called ending these protections wrong and devastating to families who work, pay taxes and contribute to Ohio. That fits a career spent standing with workers over powerful interests.

That distinction matters. Leadership isn’t about finding the safest group to defend. It’s having the courage to defend people’s humanity when doing so costs you something.

We can debate immigration policy. But don’t confuse cruelty with seriousness. Putting ankle monitors on our neighbors isn’t public safety, and sending people to a country our own government warns Americans not to travel to doesn’t become humane because somebody stamped “law and order” on it.

What it does is condition us to see our neighbors taken away and keep moving. To see somebody else’s place of worship vandalized, somebody else targeted for being who they are, or rights taken from them and think: at least they aren’t coming for me.

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