Haitians in Ohio Report Feeling Targeted by Ankle Monitors
Haitian immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in Springfield, Ohio, say they feel targeted and humiliated by ankle monitor requirements imposed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the termination of their legal protections. Community leaders describe a community in distress, with families hiding the devices from their children and advocates warning of the psychological toll.
The monitoring requirements follow the Supreme Court’s June ruling that the Trump administration could end TPS for approximately 330,000 to 350,000 Haitians. TPS officially ended on July 27, and the Department of Homeland Security began sending letters to Haitians in Springfield as early as July 22, directing them to report for in-person check-ins at ICE field offices in Blue Ash and Westerville, Ohio.
A Community Feeling Shackled
At the check-in appointments, many Haitians have been fitted with GPS ankle monitors that track their location within a 75-mile radius, and some have had their passports seized, according to reports from Truthout. The practice appears to be isolated to Springfield, with advocates and immigration attorneys in other cities with large Haitian populations such as Boston, Chicago, and Miami reporting they have not seen the same tactic.
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of the Springfield Haitian Support Center, has driven more than a dozen former TPS holders to their ICE appointments. He described the emotional impact on families.
“There is one mother who went to that appointment. When she came back home, she did not even want her kids to notice that she has that ankle monitor,” Dorsainvil told WYSO. “I am grieving with this family for that because it is really humiliating. They are not criminals. They put ankle monitors on criminals. This is very humiliating to see happen to my people.”
Carl Ruby, pastor of Springfield’s Central Christian Church, has accompanied Haitians to their appointments and called the devices “ankle shackles.”
“I think it’s a means to round up people quickly, and that when they’re ready, they have the logistics in place to deport them,” Ruby told Truthout. “I think (ICE’s) real goal is for them to self-deport. I think it boils down to they want to have complete control over them, so (ICE) can easily deport them as soon as they’re ready.”
Pressure to Self-Deport
At the July 31 check-in appointments, about 50 Haitians were pressured to accept $2,600 to self-deport or alternatively to wear an ankle monitor, according to WLRN. All of them rejected the money.
“Being deported to Haiti right now is a death sentence,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
The U.S. State Department currently has a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Haiti due to the risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care.
Katie Kersh, managing attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, said the people receiving ankle monitors are those who complied with the call-in letters.
“The people getting the ankle monitors are the people who are complying and they are getting this thing that we connote with criminality, which is an ankle monitor, when they have literally gotten that because they followed the orders of the call-in letter,” Kersh told WLRN.
Broader Expansion of Electronic Monitoring
The use of ankle monitors on immigrants has been expanding under the Trump administration. In June 2025, under then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE ordered its field officers to place ankle monitors on immigrants whenever possible, according to MS NOW. Over 30 percent of the more than 183,000 people ICE monitored on an average day in the past fiscal year using alternative to detention methods were forced to wear an ankle or wrist monitor, up from 18 percent the previous year.
In 2025, ICE awarded a contract worth up to $1 billion to BI Inc., a Boulder, Colorado-based manufacturer of GPS-enabled ankle monitors and a subsidiary of the GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest private detention firms.
A Long History of Targeting
Springfield is home to approximately 15,000 Haitian immigrants. The community became a focus of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to conduct mass deportations in September 2024 when he falsely accused them of eating house pets during a presidential debate, greatly amplifying an unfounded rumor.
Geoffrey Pipoly, the attorney who represented Haitian TPS holders before the Supreme Court, said the administration’s urgency is telling.
“We went from the first Trump administration giving these folks 18 months to get their affairs in order to now, their position is: We are not even going to give you 32 days from the final judgment of the Supreme Court,” Pipoly told WLRN. “As soon as the earliest possible time that we are legally allowed to start deporting people, that is what we are going to start doing.”
On August 21, the Trump administration sent its first deportation flight to Haiti since ending TPS, according to ABC News.
What to Watch For
Advocates say the ankle monitor requirements are creating widespread fear and uncertainty in the Haitian community in Springfield. Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, called the practice “theater.”
“They are putting ankle monitors on people to make it look like they are doing something, but it is devastating for the people who are getting these placed on their ankle,” Tramonte told WLRN. “They are a constant reminder that you are not free.”
A DHS spokesperson defended the end of TPS, saying: “For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent. What we would say now is it is closing time, which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
As the administration continues its enforcement efforts, the Haitian community in Springfield faces an uncertain future, with more check-ins expected and the threat of deportation looming. Advocates are calling for legal challenges and congressional intervention as they brace for what comes next.