ICE plans operation to speed deportations after TPS ends, report says

• ICE prepares new arrests
• TPS will lose validity
• Ohio would be a key target

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing an operation to increase arrests and deportations of Haitian migrants once they lose Temporary Protected Status (TPS), according to a CBS report based on internal documents and agency sources.

The information, which was also echoed by Fox News, indicates that the strategy involves focused operations in communities with a high Haitian population.

Springfield, Ohio, is among the places identified, a city that in recent years has become a symbol of the immigration debate in the United States.

The plan would come at a critical time, when hundreds of thousands of Haitians face the possibility of losing the protection that has allowed them to live and work legally in the country.

ICE would focus operations on Ohio Haitian communities

According to the report, ICE plans to make arrests in Ohio and quickly transport detainees via deportation flights to Haiti.

The operations would concentrate in areas where significant Haitian communities reside, including Springfield.

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According to CBS, the measure would go into effect as TPS beneficiaries officially lose that migratory protection.

More than 300,000 Haitian citizens could be affected by the end of the humanitarian program that granted them temporary permission to reside and work in the United States.

Loss of TPS changes the migratory situation for thousands of people

Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the administration of President Donald Trump to move forward with ending TPS for Haitian and Syrian citizens.

The decision is expected to begin to be reflected in lower courts this week, according to the report.

According to CBS, those who lose TPS protection will also lose authorization to work in the United States.

Additionally, they can be arrested by ICE to initiate deportation proceedings.

However, those without a prior removal order generally maintain the right to appear before an immigration judge before being deported.

TPS is a humanitarian program designed for citizens of countries affected by armed conflicts, natural disasters, or other extraordinary crises.

The protection allows them to reside and work temporarily in the United States while conditions that prevent a safe return persist.

Trump’s immigration policy accelerates the end of TPS

Since returning to the White House, the Trump administration has made increasing deportations one of the main pillars of its immigration policy.

As part of that strategy, ICE operations and immigrant detentions have been intensified in different regions of the country.

At the start of the second presidential term, nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries were protected by TPS.

Since then, the administration has eliminated or attempted to end the benefit for 13 of those countries.

The measures could affect nearly a million beneficiaries, according to data cited by EFE.

In June, the Supreme Court also authorized the government to move forward with revoking TPS for approximately 330,000 Haitians and about 6,000 Syrian citizens.

In the meantime, litigation related to other program designations continues.

Springfield returns to the center of the immigration debate

The city of Springfield had already occupied a prominent place during the 2024 presidential campaign.

During that period, Donald Trump spread false claims asserting that Haitian immigrants were eating residents’ pets.

Those claims were widely debunked.

ICE prepares new arrests: Nevertheless, they generated a wave of threats and attacks directed against members of the city’s Haitian community.

Now, Springfield reappears at the center of the immigration debate after the alleged plans of ICE to concentrate part of the operations there were made known.

The report also recalls that Haiti is going through a profound political and social crisis.

The country faces some of the highest levels of criminal violence on the continent, according to World Bank data.

That context has been one of the arguments historically supporting the designation of TPS for Haitian citizens.

For now, immigration authorities have not publicly announced the start of this operation, while the report is based on internal documents and sources cited by CBS and reproduced by other U.S. media.

SOURCE: EFE / Univision