This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
The residents of Springfield, Ohio, had prepared for the arrival of immigration agents on February 3, the expiration date set by the Trump administration for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, who account for nearly a quarter of the city’s population. A federal judge intervened at the last minute, pushing the deadline indefinitely. The agents never arrived.
Still, the city has found itself on edge this month and the threat is as unsettling as it is familiar: online misinformation, this time accusing the very people trying to protect their immigrant neighbors from deportation of trafficking their children instead.
