Lost in the media coverage of the proposed return of Haitians back to their homeland is how generous Trump is being to them. Each Haitian has an offer of $2,600 to return voluntarily, and yet Trump is being falsely portrayed as somehow being unfair.
The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 340,000 Haitians has been terminated, and it is time for them to return home. Likewise, Trump has sought to return foreigners allowed to remain in the U.S. under the TPS program from Afghanistan, Somalia, Cameroon, Nepal, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Syria, South Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), Yemen, and Ethiopia.
There are nearly 1.3 million TPS foreigners living in the U.S., as of last year. There is no legal procedure by which they can become permanent residents or citizens, and they were never supposed to stay here for more than a limited period of time.
Trump has already been very charitable to these foreigners, and can return them immediately without offering them a dime. Haitians and others who have had their TPS status revoked are staying here illegally at this point, and should accept the generous offer of payment with the free plane ride back home where many have relatives awaiting their return.
In June the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump has virtually unlimited power to terminate foreigners’ permission to stay in the U.S. under the TPS program, in a case involving Haitians and Syrians. Yet an Obama judge in Boston subsequently blocked Trump’s attempt to return 1,100 Somalis for whom their TPS status has also been terminated, even though the Supreme Court decision allows Trump to take this action.
Somalia is located on the equator on the eastern African coast, and is completely unlike the U.S. in culture, language, and weather; it never made sense to bring them here. One study found that 81% of Somali households relocated to Minnesota are on welfare, compared with only 21% of native-born American households.
Images flood the internet of Haitians having to wear ankle bracelets for tracking until they leave, but that is more generous than detention or deporting them immediately as Trump could do. Conservative podcaster Steve Bannon questions whether the new Department of Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin is getting the job done, and suggests Bill Pulte as a replacement.
Meanwhile, one of the two large private contractors that handle 90% of the detentions of illegal aliens has announced the reopening of its 1,600-bed facility in Appleton, Minnesota. That private prison had previously housed inmates from nearly a half-dozen states, and even Puerto Rico.
These private detention centers, against which Democrats have protested, are typically more accommodating to religious needs of detainees than state prisons are. In addition, private detention centers offer job opportunities to detainees at wages that are often higher than in state prisons.
Haitians, Syrians, and others have been allowed to stay in the U.S. on a temporary basis while there was supposedly a humanitarian crisis in their homelands. So many Haitians were resettled in Springfield, Ohio, where they could not possibly assimilate, that it became an issue in the 2024 election that Trump won by campaigning against it.
Dozens of Haitians found jobs with the New York City government, which fired them in July as their temporary status in our country concluded. Yet very few Haitians have actually departed, and as of the end of the month 30,000 were still living in central Ohio, half of them in Springfield, while the Department of Homeland Security told Ohio Gov. DeWine that there are no immediate plans to send them home.
Gov. DeWine opposes sending the Haitians home because he says Haiti is “hell.” But there are 12 million people in Haiti and we are not making it a better place by relocating 3% of its population, many of whom do not speak English, here where they cannot easily assimilate.
Trump has expressed frustration at DHS Secretary Mullin for not moving faster on this and related issues, such as his suspension of traffic stops and arrests of illegal aliens because of isolated violence. Trump has taken to Truth Social to rebuke Mullin and restart DHS enforcement efforts after learning that Mullin had stopped them.
Meanwhile, thousands of illegal aliens being detained have flooded the court systems with demands to be released on bond. But they all lack a citizen’s right to post bond and be released, a right that is often denied to Americans who are detained while awaiting trial.
Activist judges are ruling that illegal aliens have a right to be set free by posting a bond, which is often a small amount. With that, many individuals who are in our country illegally are roaming our streets again.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
