Springfield, a small town in south-west Ohio, has become a symbol in the closely fought midterm campaign, and what it stands for depends on who is talking. President Donald Trump has portrayed the town as a clear example of the damage done by years of unchecked immigration. He has also said his mass deportation drive is giving residents their town back.
Trump previously repeated a false claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, a claim that thrust the town into the spotlight in 2024. Others see a familiar pattern in the town’s story: a decline in traditional industry, followed by a rise in immigration drawn by cheap housing and low-paid work.
The death of a young Haitian man wearing an ankle monitor
Pierre Damas Bel, 20, arrived in Springfield in 2024 to live with his father and stepmother. He had fled Haiti, a country hit by political instability and gang violence, and entered the United States with government permission under a Biden-era programme for migrants waiting in Mexico. A family friend said he later received Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a form of humanitarian protection that allows vetted people to live and work in the country.
The friend described Bel as a driven young man who hoped to build a future in America. He was an honours student, a talented athlete and a cadet in a high school programme that prepares students for officer roles in the US Armed Forces. His life changed in June, when the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS for about 350,000 Haitians in the country.
Bel was told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office, where he was fitted with an ankle monitor used to track people facing deportation. He wrote on Instagram that he felt “shame and humiliation” about wearing it. On 31 August, he parked his car on the side of a highway near Springfield, walked into oncoming traffic and was killed.
His family blamed his death on the distress he felt about wearing the monitor. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about his case. ICE has previously rejected any suggestion that it was to blame for the death. Earlier this year, a spokesperson told US media that staying in the country illegally while fighting removal was a choice, and so was leaving with a free flight and $2,600.
In the weeks before he died, Bel had visited a Springfield support centre for Haitians facing deportation. Its co-founder, Viles Dorsainvil, said Bel had been preparing a motion asking ICE to take off the tag. “He did everything right to be here until they put the tag on him,” Dorsainvil said.
TPS terminations and the midterm fight over immigration
According to the reporting, the Trump administration has ended TPS for more than a million immigrants from 13 countries. For many people, the change turned legal residence into unauthorised status almost overnight. TPS usually runs for 18 months, but it is routinely renewed, often for years, when the danger in the home country continues.
Trump made securing the border and carrying out mass deportations central promises of his 2024 campaign. Polls suggest his border policy still has strong backing among Republicans, although support for the way he has pursued immigration enforcement has fallen this year. Ohio is now a swing state in the midterm Congressional elections, and one of its two Republican-held Senate seats is up for grabs. Trump has already visited the state twice to rally turnout and address a decline in his approval ratings.
At a rally in Youngstown earlier this month, Trump returned to Springfield. He said the town had received about 35,000 Haitians and added, “we’re giving their town back,” to cheers from the crowd. The administration first announced in June 2025 that it would end TPS for Haitians, and the legal fight went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in its favour.
James Percival, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, said after the ruling that many TPS designations had effectively become amnesty. “This is a win for the rule of law and common sense,” he said. In August, the department posted a video showing Haitians in white uniforms and chains being led onto a deportation flight, telling Haitians whose TPS had expired to leave immediately. The administration has said its operations in the town are meant to keep Americans safe and has argued that Haiti is safe enough for people to return to. The US State Department’s highest travel warning, Level 4 “Do Not Travel”, applies to Haiti.
Economic decline and a divided town in Springfield
The effects of decades of economic decline are still visible in Springfield, in shuttered factories and boarded-up homes. The town was hit hard by de-industrialisation in the last century, when workers laid off from its once busy factories moved to the coasts or to warmer southern states. Within the past five years, an estimated 20,000 Haitians arrived. Many had left after the 2010 earthquake, and others fled the violence and unrest that followed the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. Many took low-paid jobs in factories and distribution warehouses under their TPS status.
Rick Johnson, a former Marine who has lived in Springfield all his life, strongly supports the ICE deportation drive. He said the loss of local industry had left much of his neighbourhood empty and that the Haitian families now nearby do not bother him. However, he pointed to the number of newcomers and the speed of change. “If you come here you [should] come here legally,” he told reporters. Many residents share the view that traffic accidents have increased since the Haitian community arrived.
That concern carries painful memories. In 2023, an 11-year-old boy, Aiden Clark, was killed when his school bus overturned after a crash with a minivan. The driver, Herman Joseph, who was originally from Haiti, did not have a valid US driver’s licence and was jailed. Aiden’s father, Nathan Clark, later told a Springfield City Commission meeting that politicians were using his son’s death as a “political tool” to fuel anti-immigrant feeling, and said his son had been killed accidentally.
Business has also suffered. At a grocery store run by Paschur Castelly, who left Haiti 20 years ago, most shelves are bare apart from religious candles and framed images of Catholic saints. “I can’t purchase new merchandise because I don’t have people coming in,” Castelly said. He added that Haitian communities include doctors and engineers, and that people came to America seeking a better life and to help relatives back home.
A man who had worked in a warehouse for three years and asked not to be named came into the store during the visit. He rolled up his trouser leg to show an ankle monitor. ICE has said these devices are part of its Alternatives to Detention programme. He said he had been offered a choice: wear the monitor and report every two weeks, or sign a deportation order. As the reporters left, Castelly locked the door, and a neighbour called out to ask if he was safe after fearing an ICE raid. Weeks before voters decide the direction of Trump’s remaining term, Springfield remains a sign of two very different Americas.
