Ohio GOP Gov. Dewine Makes Plea to Trump: Let Us Keep Immigrants

Fighting illegal immigration was a rallying cry for the GOP in the 2024 election. As the midterms approach, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is pleading with the president and his administration to allow Ohio to keep its immigrant population.

“We need some immigrants to come in here,” DeWine told us Wednesday.

DeWine is once again calling on President Donald Trump regarding immigration policies, this time urging him to focus on bipartisan reform.

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There hasn’t been a leader who has been able to do anything to reform the legal immigration system, but Trump has a “unique” ability to solve this crisis, DeWine said. He referenced how many workers in long-term care facilities are foreign-born.

“Moving towards depleting all these people and kicking them out of the country is not particularly helpful,” he said. “We should be moving in the other direction, and that is having a good conversation about who needs to be here legally.”

Overall, the governor has been very supportive of legal immigration — going back decades. For years, DeWine has split with Republican Party leaders on Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which can be granted to refugees from specific countries.

Haiti used to be on that list. Now, the governor says he is being forced to watch as the 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield are wearing ankle monitors and having their passports taken away.

“Restricting legal immigration is not a good idea,” DeWine said. “We’re deporting from this country a large number of people who are working, a large number of people who are raising families, a large number of people who are really contributing to their local community.”

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Immigrants are taxpayers and business owners, and DeWine said they have been instrumental in Ohio’s growth.

“Whether you like it or not, immigrants are good for business,” Cimperman said.

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DeWine also said that Ohio would not be where it is today without immigrants.

“If you look at the growth in the state of Ohio in the last 10 years and that continued this last year, 60% of our growth in the state has come from immigrants,” he said. “When you cut that off, you’re going to see Ohio not grow anymore, and we need to grow.”

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