Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump has said if he’s elected, he would deport the Haitian migrants in Springfield who living and working in the U.S. legally under temporary protected status.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine continues to walk a fine line on questions about Trump’s comments and legal immigrants, even as he's being praised for the support he's sent to Springfield and the outreach he's done with the Haitian community there.
DeWine didn't directly push back when asked to react to comments from Trump, the candidate he has said he supports, who said Wednesday that he would revoke that temporary protected status of Haitians in Springfield.
“We have room for all kinds of different views. We believe that we have certain principles that we all share, but there's ample room for disagreement within the party," DeWine said.
RELATED: Misinformation about Haitian immigrant population plagues Springfield community
DeWine once again criticized the Biden administration for its policies on the southern border, which is a big talking point for Trump and other Republicans.
"I think we have to distinguish between the legal and the illegal, and unfortunately, because of failure at the southern border and I've said before, the Biden administration has not done a very good job at all in regard to the southern border," DeWine said.
But he added that allowing people living in danger in other countries to come to the U.S. under temporary protected status, as most of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield have, is not new.
"I think we always have room in this country for people who are facing great oppression," DeWine said.
RELATED: How Springfield, Ohio, took center stage in the election immigration debate
Trump said he would revoke TPS status for Haitians in Springfield when talking to NewsNation after an event in Texas Wednesday, in an interview that included some inaccurate and false claims about immigrants.
"In Springfield, what's happening there is horrible," Trump said. "You have to remove the people. We cannot destroy our country."
"It doesn't work. It can't work," Trump added. "In my opinion, it's not legal."
DeWine said the lack of federal action reforming immigration laws makes it impossible to have what he called a rational discussion about it. Trump demanded Republicans in Congress reject a bipartisan bill that looked likely to pass earlier this year.
