'We Spend Our Days in Silence': Fear in Ohio as Haitians March 45 Miles Against ICE Crackdown

Michaelle Louis's feet and legs are aching and she can barely walk. Surrounded by corn fields and the distant hum of a busy highway, the native of Haiti and dozens of other activists are 23 miles into a 45-mile march from Springfield to Ohio's statehouse in Columbus to demand better rights and dignity for Haitian immigrants.

But the pain she feels now is nothing compared to the mental anguish and fear she endured last summer. In August, she spent five days huddling with her daughter and brother in the basement of her Springfield home. The family went without electricity during daylight hours out of fear that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers might come knocking on her door to deport them.

Recalling those days, Louis said she closed the curtains because she did not want anyone to know there were people living in the house.

For months, ICE has been accused of terrorising members of Springfield's immigrant community, speeding after vehicles down normally placid streets and causing crashes. Chief among those targeted are the city's Haitian community, who began immigrating eight years ago to the struggling town of 60,000 residents to fill hundreds of open blue-collar jobs.

But a Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to end temporary protected status (TPS) for more than 350,000 Haitian nationals in July meant they could no longer work legally, and within days, dozens of ICE agents descended on Springfield. In September, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said 380 people had been detained by ICE agents in Springfield.

Louis grew up in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and says she came to Springfield in 2021 having entered the country legally through the southern US border. Her 31-year-old brother was murdered by a gang in Haiti in December 2018. She said she had received so many threats from the gangs that she left three months after he was killed, and that it was very hard for her mother and father to lose their son.

It is not only Haitians who feel harassed by federal immigration agents in Springfield. When ICE began patrolling city streets in August, resident Sean Moorman set about monitoring their activities and following their vehicles around town.

But that soon drew unwanted attention. In a lawsuit filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio against seven ICE officers last month, Moorman claimed agents swerved one of their vehicles towards his as if to ram him, took photos of his car and used several vehicles to corner him in his car, making him fear for his life. Agents also allegedly drove by and photographed his home while his wife was inside.

Last month, a federal judge ordered ICE to stop retaliatory action against Moorman and granted a temporary restraining order against seven of its agents, all of whom remained unnamed. But many of the ICE officers operating in Springfield at the time were moved out of state and the judicial order ran out on 18 September. Moorman's lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge on 2 October, and Moorman declined an interview, fearing further retaliation.

David Carey, managing legal director at the ACLU of Ohio and Moorman's legal representative, said it was disappointing but not surprising that ICE chose to shuffle officers around rather than allowing them to face accountability in court. He said the fact that the court had entered and extended a temporary restraining order also sent the most important message: ICE does not have a blank check to violate First Amendment rights.

ICE says it is aware of the lawsuit filed by the ACLU in Ohio and is reviewing appropriate next steps in coordination with the Department of Justice. An ICE spokesperson said the Department of Homeland Security is conducting law enforcement activities across the country every day to keep Americans safe, and that under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, those who break the law will face consequences and illegal aliens are not welcome in the US.

Around the country, ICE watchers such as Moorman have become essential in bringing to light the agency's dangerous actions. More than two dozen people have been shot by ICE officers, many in front of their children, since the beginning of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in February 2025. Among them are three US citizens who were shot dead in Minneapolis and Texas. Two of those people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were, like Moorman, monitoring the actions of ICE agents.

For Louis, the false statement Trump made during his presidential election campaign in September 2024 about immigrants in Springfield eating people's pets hurt her the most. She said that opened her eyes; until then, she had only gone to work and come home, had not been that interested in community issues, and had been helping Americans facing domestic violence. She said she served the nation and its citizens, and that being told she was eating dogs and cats and coming illegally shook her — she was sleeping and has now woken up for her community.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have deported 980,000 people since the beginning of Trump's second stint in office.

Louis says the three-day march across Ohio is to raise awareness of activists' demands to end ICE's detention of and use of ankle monitors on immigrants, for its agents to leave Springfield, and for authorities to establish a permanent residency pathway for Haitians who have contributed to life in the US.

On day two of the march, as a large Amazon warehouse where dozens of Haitians were employed before the Trump crackdown came into view, Louis talked about a Haitian woman she knows whose husband was recently deported to Haiti, where violence and political unrest has reigned for more than a decade. She said they had bought a house there but were now moving back to Haiti, adding that she thinks this is a method by ICE — take the man and the family will follow.