As Masked Agents Terrorize Springfield and Take Over City Property, Mayor Rue Offers "Thoughts and Prayers"

Masked ICE agents are conducting aggressive enforcement operations throughout Springfield, stopping vehicles mid-street, going door-to-door, and using city property as a staging area. At this week’s City Commission meeting, residents testified about the terror gripping their community. 

What was Mayor Rue's response? A moment of silence and a prayer. Meanwhile, Governor DeWine has seemingly abandoned the issue.

In Haiti, at least 47 people were massacred in Kenscoff last weekend. This was considered an upper-class and “safer” town than most. Ohio Capitol Journal has reported on the rampant gang violence across Haiti, and found that “because of their connection to the United States, people who are deported from Ohio are likely to be targets of kidnappings in the gangs’ relentless quest for cash.”

Members of Congress who recently traveled to Haiti learned about a six year-old U.S. citizen who had been kidnapped and raped for weeks, until her family was able to pay the ransom. They also watched a video showing the murder of a man who had helped the police. His killers attacked him with a machete and forced him to eat his own ears before he died. This is what Haitian-Ohioans and their supporters have in mind when they ask Springfield and Ohio leaders for help.

Giving ICE the Keys to the City

Meanwhile, ICE has the run of the city. After organizing themselves at the Public Safety Center in Springfield, masked ICE agents drive through city streets, raiding homes and businesses and arresting residents. Yesterday, 937icewatch posted a video of agents in at least four unmarked cars ambushing a man in a lime-green car. He fled his vehicle in the middle of the street, outside of a Rally's restaurant, and agents tackled him to the ground.

"It looked like a kidnapping on the streets of Haiti, right here in Springfield," said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance. "What’s worse, these are agents of the U.S. government, using our tax dollars to terrorize good people who deserve to live in a safe place. Think about what awaits this man in Haiti and ask yourself, what would you do in his shoes? I don't see how anyone can watch this video and say 'this is OK.'"

Dozens of Springfield residents have been arrested by ICE, and some already deported, since the Trump administration cancelled their legal status. This despite the fact that many still have asylum cases pending before USCIS and the immigration court. Also, the same Trump administration warns against anyone traveling there due to crime, kidnapping, murder, and rape.

“Not only has city leadership been missing in action when it comes to the ICE invasion of their town, but police and the Clark County Sheriff are actively assisting federal agents in their removal campaign,” said Tramonte. “Local media and residents have documented ICE using the Public Safety Building parking lot as a staging area. The city of Springfield went from embracing the Haitian population that helped it grow to abandoning them in their hour of need.”

We Are Not OK

Residents poured their hearts out at Tuesday's City Commission meeting (read more here):

• Rachel Salyers: "I've lived in Springfield my entire life and I've never been afraid to live here, but right now it's terrifying. Our families are scared to go to church, school, [or to] the store."
• Lucky Philistine: "I'm a young Black Haitian American, fatherless due to ICE removing my father from our home at such a young age. My mother was forced to raise three girls alone."
• Jen Casto: "Springfield is afraid, not of crime, but of ICE — afraid to drop kids at school, afraid to go to work, afraid to sit in a pew on Sunday. Some of you have decided it doesn't concern you."
• Jill Potter-Bonsell: "Clark County Sheriff deputies have been seen with ICE when they're knocking on people's doors. They've been seen escorting ICE vehicles around town and using government property to do their immigration work right here downtown. The Springfield Police Department is still sharing Flock data with over 900 counties that have contracts with ICE."

Mayor Rue’s (Silent) Response

During the City Commission meeting, Mayor Rue offered a moment of silence and then a prayer, before moving into discussion of utility rates and zoning amendments. "God, I ask that you would bring peace to our community," he prayed, ignoring the fact that people who could actually bring some peace to the community — like him — were in the room.

During the meeting, the city offered no response to residents’ concerns about ICE using city property. They offered no plan to enforce the law enforcement mask ban they previously passed. There was no discussion of how to get terrified kids back to school, whether in person or online. There were no phone calls made to our U.S. Senators about supporting the Haitian protection bill that already passed the House.

Meanwhile, Springfield Police and the Clark County Sheriff's Office refuse to acknowledge what residents and members of the press have seen with their own eyes, and seem to be avoiding public appearances.

Simple Public Safety Demands

The Springfield community is asking local government to take basic steps within their power to protect the public. This isn’t only about immigration enforcement; it’s about public safety for everyone. As former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said, ICE’s community-based enforcement tactics, “are so far outside the standard practices and policies of any professional law enforcement agency that it shocks the conscience.”

The community’s demands are:

• Enforce the January resolution requiring federal agents to show their faces and be identifiable
• Ban federal officers from using city property for operations
• Refuse to share Flock data with agencies who have ICE 287(g) agreements
• Work with schools to provide online options, transportation, and truancy exemptions for children and families afraid to leave their homes

Across Ohio, advocates join in these demands and are asking Governor DeWine to call Senators Moreno and Husted and tell them to support legislation that would protect Springfield's Haitian community from deportation — legislation that already passed the House on a bipartisan basis. Governor DeWine must also tell the Highway Patrol to stop assisting ICE and the Border Patrol with civil immigration enforcement.

"These steps are the bare minimum Ohio leaders must take," said Tramonte. "Instead, Mayor Rue offered 'thoughts and prayers' for Springfield residents living this nightmare, and the run of the Public Safety Building to ICE. What happened to 'these folks are our neighbors, coworkers, business owners'? Governor DeWine and Mayor Rue built positive reputations for themselves as leaders, advocating for Haitian-Ohioans and Springfield's future. Why abandon them now, when it matters the most?”

Where Is DeWine?

After being a strong advocate for Haitian-Ohioans settling into their new home, Governor DeWine seems to have turned the page. He published a bizarre op-ed in the New York Times that tries to pass the buck to President Trump, naively calling on him to “lead an effort to reform our legal immigration system — to make changes that prioritize our work force needs while respecting our history of welcoming people fleeing oppression and humanitarian crises.”

“This is classic DeWine,” Tramonte said. “‘Don’t ask me to lead, I’m only the Governor of Ohio.’ No one has ever used the words ‘Trump’ and ‘welcoming people fleeing oppression’ in the same sentence for a reason. But there are real things Governor DeWine can do today. He can pick up the phone and tell Senators Moreno and Husted that Ohio needs them. Stop complaining and do your jobs — pass the Haitian protection legislation. Governor DeWine can then call Colonel Jones of the Ohio Highway Patrol, Mayor Rue, the Clark County Sheriff, and Springfield Police Chief. Tell them that Ohio law enforcement should focus on criminal activity — not civil immigration enforcement. They shouldn’t be doing ICE and the Border Patrol’s job, and they shouldn’t help the Trump administration send Ohioans to a country where they will be killed. That’s not who we are and now is the time to lead.”