COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fighting illegal immigration was a rallying cry for the GOP in the 2024 election. As the midterms approach, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is pleading with the president and his administration to allow Ohio to keep its immigrant population.
"We need some immigrants to come in here," DeWine told me Wednesday.
DeWine is once again calling on President Donald Trump regarding immigration policies, this time urging him to focus on bipartisan reform.
"Donald Trump is in a position, in my opinion, because of his credentials in regard to illegal immigration, to actually go to the Congress and start a discussion about legal immigration and what is in the best interest of the United States," the governor said.
There hasn't been a leader who has been able to do anything to reform the legal immigration system, but Trump has a "unique" ability to solve this crisis, DeWine said. He referenced how many workers in long-term care facilities are foreign-born.
"Moving towards depleting all these people and kicking them out of the country is not particularly helpful," he said. "We should be moving in the other direction, and that is having a good conversation about who needs to be here legally."
Overall, the governor has been very supportive of legal immigration — going back decades. For years, DeWine has split with Republican Party leaders on Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which can be granted to refugees from specific countries.
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Haiti used to be on that list. Now, the governor says he is being forced to watch as the 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield are wearing ankle monitors and having their passports taken away.
"Restricting legal immigration is not a good idea," DeWine said. "We're deporting from this country a large number of people who are working, a large number of people who are raising families, a large number of people who are really contributing to their local community."
But the Trump administration says it is accomplishing its goals of immigration reform, reform promised with a focus on "mass deportations" as its campaign platform in 2024.
"Nobody thought it was possible," Trump told reporters this summer. "We had the worst border in the history of our country, and now we have the best."
This week, the Department of State said that since Trump took office, it has revoked more than 175,000 visas and continues to remove countries from having protected status.
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"Our previously wide-open borders have been transformed into the most secure borders in the history of our country," the president continued.
The DHS would not confirm to our national team whether ICE is already planning to target Haitians for deportation, but in a statement, a spokesperson said that TPS was a quick fix.
“Temporary Protected Status is exactly that—temporary," a spokesperson said, in part. "For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent."
Uncertainty is hurting Ohio’s community, international newcomer nonprofit Global Cleveland’s Joe Cimperman said.
"My fear is that pretty soon anybody who doesn't have full citizenship in the United States is going to be targeted," Cimperman said.
Trump is actively trying to limit birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court decided in June that he couldn’t end it, arguing it is being used for “birth tourism” to get a child citizenship.
Immigrants are taxpayers and business owners, and DeWine said they have been instrumental in Ohio's growth.
"Whether you like it or not, immigrants are good for business," Cimperman said.
I asked DeWine if his new tactic of saying only Trump could solve this issue could play into Trump's ego, yielding better results.
"I did not intend to play on anyone's ego," DeWine responded.
Trump could be very similar to Nixon, the governor said, noting that the former president was the only one to be able to ease tensions with China.
"If you go back to the last campaign where everyone was talking about, 'We have to deal with the southern border.' That's what people voted for: 'Seal the southern border,'" DeWine said. "He's effectively done that, and so he has great credibility on this issue."
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DeWine also said that Ohio would not be where it is today without immigrants.
"If you look at the growth in the state of Ohio in the last 10 years and that continued this last year, 60% of our growth in the state has come from immigrants," he said. "When you cut that off, you're going to see Ohio not grow anymore, and we need to grow."
The governor has not yet received a response from the Trump administration.
Follow Statehouse and Columbus bureau reporter Morgan Trau on X, Instagram and Facebook. Email her at Morgan.Trau@wews.com.
