Trump's fascist 'remigration' policy would destroy cities like Springfield in order to 'save' them

Former President Donald Trump’s “remigration” policy would actually destroy cities like Springfield, Ohio, that he claims he's trying to “save” from a non-existent threat from an influx of immigrants.

In recent years, thousands of Haitian immigrants have settled in the Rust Belt city, drawn by the low cost of living compared to Miami and New York, and plenty of available jobs.

Most of the Haitians in Springfield have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) enabling them to live and work legally in the U.S. Some have already obtained their green cards granting permanent resident status or have filed applications for political asylum.

On Wednesday, Trump told NewsNation in an interview that he would revoke the Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants in the U.S. Trump gave a highly exaggerated figure of 32,000 Haitians living in the Ohio city. City officials put the number of immigrants (about 80% of whom are Haitians) at between 12,000 and 15,000 in Clark County, which includes Springfield.

Trump said:

“Springfield is such a beautiful place. Have you seen what’s happened to it? It’s been overrun. You can’t do that to people. I’d revoke (the protected status), and I’d bring (the migrants) back to their country.”

Trump embarrassed himself in his disastrous debate with Vice President Kamala Harris by making false, racist claims about pet-eating Haitian immigrants in Springfield. Just days later, Trump made this chilling post on his Truth Social platform.

"As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, and all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala's illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration). I will save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, and all across America."

Trump's anti-immigrant screed was reposted on X. formerly Twitter, by Stephen Miller, who helped shaped Trump's racist, draconian immigration policies, including separating families at the border and a ban on travelers from Muslim-majority countries. Miller is likely to play a prominent role in a second Trump administration.

Now what should raise alarm bells is Miller and Trump's use of the term "remigration." Christopher Mathias, writing in Huffpost, says the word has "a deep fascist history," describing "remigration" as "a euphemism for ethnically cleansing non-white people from Western countries."

Mathias wrote:

Trump’s use of “remigration” is the latest instance of the GOP’s intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric in the run-up to November’s election, underscoring the degree to which one of America’s two major political parties is sourcing many of its talking points and policy ideas directly from neo-fascists.

“Trump’s rhetoric about ‘remigration’ has its origins in the international far-right,” Jakob Guhl, a senior manager of policy and research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explained to HuffPost in an email. “The term remigration was popularized by groups adhering to Identitarianism, a pan-European ethno-nationalist movement, as their policy to reverse the so-called ‘great replacement.’”

“The great replacement theory is a conspiracy theory which claims that ‘native’ Europeans are being deliberately replaced through non-European migration while suppressing European birth-rates,” he continued. “This theory has inspired numerous terrorist attacks, including the Christchurch massacre, where 51 people were killed, as well as attacks in Poway, El Paso, Halle, Buffalo, and Bratislava.”

But now support for "remigration" has moved beyond fringe white nationalist groups to become a policy endorsed by far-right parties in Europe. The Alternative for Deutschland, recently became the first far-right party since the Nazis to win a state election in Germany, and Austria's Freedom Party, founded after World War II by former Nazis, which finished first with 28.2 % of the vote in last month's parliamentary election. Fortunately, neither party is likely to form a governing coalition at either the state or national level since both countries are parliamentary democracies.

But U.S. presidents have far greater power to use the executive branch to impose their policy agenda. The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling granting immunity for official presidential acts further removes any guardrails for a second Trump term.

Trump, echoing a policy proposal in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint for autocracy, has promised to deport millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. in what he's called "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history."

In his first term, the Trump administration removed fewer than 1 million people from the country, which was far fewer than the number President Barack Obama deported during his first term.

Mother Jones reported that this was due to "outside resistance, internal opposition, sanctuary policies, legal guardrails, and sheer ineptitude." But Miller and other Trump acolytes have been "devising legal workarounds to prevent their extreme proposals from being curtailed or killed in the courts."

Mother Jones wrote:

This time around, they plan to invoke an infamous 18th-century wartime law, deploy the National Guard, and build massive detention camps—and intend on reshaping the federal bureaucracy to ensure it happens, drafting executive orders and filling the administration with loyalists who will quickly implement the policies.

Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance seem to have a particular animus toward the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield.

Most of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield are covered under the Temporary Protected Status program. Congress approved the program in 1990 during President George H.W. Bush's administration for people from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other crises. The Department of Homeland Security may designate a country for TPS, and individuals from that country can obtain employment authorization and cannot be deported. However, TPS is only a temporary benefit that is subject to renewal every 18 months.

In 2010, Haiti was added to the list of countries covered under TPS by the Obama administration after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country.

As president, Trump displayed his innate racism when he referred to Haiti and and African nations as "shithole" countries. Trump tried to end TPS for immigrants from at least six countries, including Haiti. These decisions were challenged in two court cases, resulting in district courts temporarily blocking the TPS removals. But the legal questions involved in the cases were not definitively resolved.

The cases became moot when the Biden administration extended TPS for Haitian immigrants in May 2021.

Since then conditions in Haiti have only worsened following the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenal Moise. The Biden administration granted another 18-month extension of TPS for Haiti in July 2024, which covers an estimated 500,000 Haitian immigrants in the U.S.

In January 2023, the Biden administration announced a new "humanitarian parole" initiative intended to create more lawful pathways into the U.S. and decrease pressure at the border. It allows up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have a financial sponsor in the U.S. and ae vetted to come to the U.S. for a period of two years to live and work lawfully.

If Trump is elected to a second term, these programs are all under threat.

It would simply be inhumane to deport thousands of Haitians from cities like Springfield to their home country where they would become targets for the gangs running rampant in the country.

The Associated Press wrote:

Gangs have pillaged their way through the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, killing, raping and kidnapping thousands of people in recent years and leaving hundreds of thousands of others homeless and unemployed, which in turn has deepened poverty.

“Several regions in Haiti continue to face violence or insecurity, and many have limited access to safety, health care, food, and water,” Homeland Security said in a press release. “Haiti is particularly prone to flooding and mudslides, and often experiences significant damage due to storms, flooding, and earthquakes.”

As for Springfield itself, the anti-immigrant hatred spread by Trump and Vance have already had an adverse effect. Haitian residents have been subjected to verbal threats, obscene text messages, homes being vandalized, and other forms of intimidation, a Haitian community leader, Viles Dorsainvil, told The New Yorker. He said "a number of Haitians have just decided to leave" Springfield because "they believe they are not safe in this community."

Dorsainvil said in the last few weeks he's experienced the worst and the best in America. Amidst all the hatred directed at the Haitian community, he said many local residents have reached out to express their solidarity and offer support.

Dorsainvil told The New Yorker:

"I never believed that I would experience leaders like this seeking the highest offices in America. It kind of shifted my idea about the country a bit. On the other hand, I see the beauty of it as well in other people. But I still ask myself, Why do these people, who are seeking the highest offices in America, not know how powerful words can be, and the damage that it could cause in a specific country or community?"

The tension and division in Springfield spawned by Trump, Vance and their MAGA cultists have also hurt prospects for attracting new businesses to the community.

Just look at what happened to local businessman Jamie McGregor, a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.

In early September, McGregor told The New York Times that his family-owned business that makes parts for cars, trucks and tractors was short of machine operators, forklift drivers and other workers. So he hired some Haitians to fill the vacant positions, and now they comprise 10 percent of his workforce of 330.

McGregor praised his Haitian workers, saying “They come to work every day. They don’t cause drama. They’re on time.”

But those remarks were enough to enrage Trump's MAGA cultists. At the end of September, the same New York Times reporter Miriam Jordan returned to Springfield and spoke to McGregor again.

Jordan wrote:

For Jamie McGregor, a businessman in Springfield, Ohio, speaking favorably about the Haitian immigrants he employs has come to this: death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor for hiring immigrants.

To defend himself and his family, Mr. McGregor has had to violate his own vow to never own a gun.

“I have struggled with the fact that now we’re going to have firearms in our house — like, what the hell?” said Mr. McGregor ... “And now we’re taking classes, we’re going to shooting ranges, we’re being fitted for handguns,” he said on a recent day, pulling up a photo of his 14-year-old daughter clutching a Glock.

McGregor told the Times that he would not vote for Trump again.

Springfield is the county seat of Clark County, which supported Trump over Biden by a margin of 61% to 38% in the 2020 presidential election. It's about 50 miles northeast of Middletown, where Vance grew up.

Springfield's Republican Mayor Rob Rue and Gov, Mike DeWine have publicly contradicted Trump's and Vance's false claims about Haitian immigrants destroying the city.

DeWine told ABC News:

“Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in. These Haitians came in to work for these companies. What the companies tell us is that they are very good workers. They’re very happy to have them there, and frankly, that’s helped the economy.”

Last month, the city of Springfield posted a page titled "Immigration FAQS" to debunk the false conspiracy theories about the adverse impact of Haitian immigrants.

It began by stating:

Springfield is an appealing place for many reasons including lower cost of living and available work. These conditions are thought to be the primary reasons for immigrants to choose Springfield. Now that there are numerous immigrant families residing in our community, word of mouth is adding to our population, as this communal culture is sharing their positive experiences about living in our community with family and friends who are also seeking to leave the impoverished and dangerous living conditions of their home country.

It made the following points: No government entity was responsible for the influx of Haitians into Clark County; Haitian immigrants are here legally, and Haitians are more likely to be the victims of crime than they are to be the perpetrators in our community.

But the city also acknowledged the challenges it's facing as a result of the rapid grown of its immigrant population, including a lack of resources to handle soaring demand for healthcare, housing adequate school resources, and public safety. The city cited "intolerance and racism" as one of the primary challenges it must deal with.

But the Republican-controlled city said the biggest need was for increased state and federal funding to reduce the strain on local resources that have stirred tensions.

The city's political and business leaders have not advocated mass deportations as a way to Make Springfield Great Again.

The local newspaper, the Springfield News-Sun, wrote: "The sudden loss of thousands of residents, employees and property owners would have a dramatic impact on the Springfield community."

It also cited a statement by the Greater Springfield Partnership, which represents the local business community, that noted that Haitian workers pay taxes and invest in the local economy.

"Our community attracted 7,000 new jobs to the area in the past several years, and we need hard-working, reliable people to fill these jobs," the partnership wrote. It added: "We've taken proactive steps to support local efforts to help the Haitian population assimilate into our workforce."

Trump's mass deportation policy, if implemented, would likely return Springfield to the desperate straits the city found itself back in 2012.

In 2012, the Toronto-based Globe and Mail wrote about Springfield as symbolic of the near complete collapse of U.S. manufacturing that "has left behind a lost generation and a bitter population that is disproportionately aged."

The Globe and Mail wrote:

As recently as 1983, Newsweek Magazine named Springfield one of America's "dream cities." There was little crime, a university, racial harmony (the city was the first major U.S. community to elect a black mayor), a vibrant downtown, still active industries and a central location on the region's road and rail networks.

Last year, however, the Gallup polling organization described Springfield as the "unhappiest city" in the United States. Gone were many of the factories, and, like so many U.S. cities in the rust belt, the downtown was deserted. Unemployment rose and, with it, crime. An entire generation of young people left Springfield to find work.

Springfield's population had shrunk from about 80,000 in the late 1960s and early 1970s to under 60,000.

Christian Rabey, a Springfield native in a recent report for Global Baptist News about how local Christian ministers have welcomed the Haitian immigrants, posted You Tube videos from the 2010s of abandoned houses, restaurants, grocery stores, and shopping centers in the city.

In 2014, city and business leaders launched a Welcome Springfield campaign designed to attract immigrants and boost the local economy.

The New York Times described how the city crafted a strategic plan to attract business by pitching the town's affordability, its work force development programs and its accessible location between Columbus and Dayton.

By 2020, the city had recreated an estimated 8,000 new jobs by attracting food-service firms, logistics companies and a microchip maker, among other companies, raising optimism for the future, the Times reported.

The Times wrote:

But soon there were not enough workers. Many young, working-age people had descended into addiction. Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said.

Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force.

And Trump's mass deportation policy would destroy cities like Springfield rather than save them. In fact, the opposite is true: Immigrants have saved dying towns in rural America rather than destroy them.

Noah Smith, a liberal commentator on economics, wrote on Substack that what's happened in Springfield mirrors the stories of other small towns that have received a bunch of immigrants.

He wrote:

MAGA types get enraged about small-town immigration that they read about or see on TV. Then in the actual towns where the immigration is happening, the immigrants are working hard, revitalizing the town’s economy, generally being good neighbors, and winning over the long-standing residents. Again and again, America is functional and healthy at the local level, while national politicians foment hate from out of town.

And as Greg Sargent noted in The New Republic, Democrats should respond to Trump's attacks by saying "that immigration, managed properly, is not a threat to deep and cherished local attachments at all."

He wrote that "immigrants have helped make our post-Covid economy the envy of the world" and "are helping revive middle-class flourishing in the very Rust Belt areas that Trump and Vance love to rhapsodize about."