Ohio Haitians Get Ankle Monitors Instead of ICE Detention

Haitians living in Ohio who have lost Temporary Protected Status are increasingly being fitted with ankle monitors instead of being held in long-term ICE detention, immigration attorneys say.

ICE has been directing Haitians to appear in person at check-ins, where they receive monitors to track their whereabouts while an immigration judge decides whether they have a legitimate reason to remain, such as an asylum claim, the lawyers said.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said the decision often comes down to a lack of detention space for the more than 300,000 Haitians who lost TPS after a Supreme Court decision in June.

"We were really worried that this was going to be a mass enforcement, mass detention operation," said Katie Kersh, an immigration attorney at the Ohio-based law firm Advocates for Basic Legal Equality. Several of her clients recently received ICE letters mandating in-person check-ins. "And so we went," she said. People were arrested but not detained long-term. "They all have these ankle monitors and they're not allowed to travel outside of a 75-mile radius from their home."

DHS declined to comment on the ankle monitors, saying it does not discuss ongoing or future operations.

The move is the latest policy shift since DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over in March. Last month, Mullin drew President Trump's ire when he halted ICE vehicle pursuits after fatal shootings, a pause Trump quickly overturned. A senior administration official and a DHS official told NBC News there is growing tension between the White House and Mullin, though Trump does not appear to be preparing to oust him.

Temporary Protected Status allows people from countries ravaged by war, disaster or other extreme circumstances to live and work in the U.S. temporarily. In June, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end protections for more than 300,000 Haitians who arrived after the 2010 earthquake and more than 50,000 Syrians who fled their country's 2015 civil war.

ICE currently holds about 65,000 immigrants in detention nationwide, and the senior DHS official said it would be impossible to detain all 300,000-plus Haitians who lost protected status. NBC News has reported ICE is working to open new detention facilities.

Trump has repeatedly focused on Haitian immigrants, including lending credence in 2024 to false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets — claims later debunked but that fueled support among immigration hard-liners.