American Fascism’s Next Target

Unsurprisingly, since JD Vance is happy to spread lies about Haitian immigrants there just like he is happy to spread lies about the people being murdered by ICE, our lovely fascist immigrant enforcement agency is about to go hog wild on the poor people of Springfield, Ohio.

Local officials in Springfield, Ohio — the subject of Vice President JD Vance’s racist smears about Haitian immigrants — are bracing for a 30-day ICE surge. 

In a message obtained by the Springfield News-Sun, Springfield City School District Superintendent Bob Hill said that local officials had discussed the likelihood that federal immigration authorities could descend on the city sometime after Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants expires on February 3.

“Federal authorities signaled an enforcement window of at least 30 days,” Hill’s message said. “A federal list of individual removal orders has been identified in Springfield as an initial focal point for enforcement activity, with discretion to detain additional individuals encountered who lack lawful status.”

Hill specified that there was no evidence that immigration enforcement would take place on school property. However, as we have seen in Minneapolis and elsewhere, immigration enforcement directly affects school-aged children, who can either be left stranded or detained alongside their relatives. 

In a city such as Springfield, which has seen an influx of new Haitians residents in the past few years, this is especially true. Pam Shay, director of federal programs at Springfield City Schools, claimed that immigrant students count for anywhere between five and 40 percent of the population of an individual district building. She also said that approximately 20 percent of the district’s 1,400 students were admitted after 2021, and do not have citizenship documents. 

I hope some Ohio allies resist ICE like has been happening in Minneapolis. Seems less likely given the political makeup of that area, but the powerful and increasingly confrontational resistance needs to happen nationwide and it almost has to be people with white privilege to do it since the media won’t care if ICE kills some Haitians.