ROOKE: GOP Governor’s Weak Response On Immigration Is The Reason We Can’t Stop Fighting The Blob

OPINION



(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
July 30, 202610:52 AM ET

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent defense of Haitian Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders represents a deep failure inside the Republican Party.

In an interview July 27 with CBS, DeWine defended Haitian TPS holders in Ohio and urged President Donald Trump and his administration to back down from its plans to expel these immigrants from the U.S.

It’s not the first time DeWine complained about the issue. He’s made several statements denouncing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the path for the Trump administration to terminate TPS for roughly 350,000 Haitians.

His views are reminiscent of the outdated, pre-Trump immigration instincts that ran rampant in the old GOP. DeWine and Republicans like him are the reason the blob of bureaucrats, NGOs, media and establishment politicians feel free to continue to obstruct immigration enforcement even after voters delivered a decisive mandate in 2024. TPS was a mistake but one that was only meant to grant temporary protections.

However, like everything else in our federal government, once a bad idea, like TPS, is enacted, the system quickly turns temporary into indefinite residence. Congress created the program in the Immigration Act of 1990 to provide short-term relief when a country faced extraordinary and temporary conditions that made safe return impossible. Haiti received its first designation in January 2010. The initial grant was for 18 months. What followed was a sixteen-year cascade of extensions and re-designations under both parties.

The second Trump administration finally moved to end it after the 2024 election and the subsequent Supreme Court ruling in Mullin v. Doe. But by this time, hundreds of thousands of Haitians had spent almost two decades building lives, having children, and embedding themselves in American communities. DeWine’s insistence that ending the program is contrary to “our own self-interest” simply ignores the devastation that occurs in American communities when immigration laws are abused.

DeWine argues that Ohio’s economic health relies on immigrant labor. He claims repeatedly that Haitian immigrants work in industries that American workers refuse to participate in, like manufacturing and nursing homes. His statements are completely detached from reality. Maybe he’s forgotten that these people were not welcomed into our country to work factory jobs that Americans supposedly didn’t want. In fact, labor shortages are a direct consequence of policies like TPS and open borders, which flooded communities, rose prices, and suppressed wages in low-skill sectors. TPS discouraged domestic workers from participating.

This doesn’t stop DeWine from celebrating the demographic change while dismissing concerns of the native citizens.

The modern Republican Party has moved far beyond this position. It wasn’t until the 2016 presidential election that the GOP and its voters had to reconcile with the fact that diversity is not our strength and that unchecked illegal immigration would eventually ruin this country. The 2024 election, almost a decade later, brought legal immigrants into the national discussion. Voters rejected the open-border policies of the Biden years and endorsed a platform of mass deportation, border security, and the restoration of temporary status to its original meaning. Now, it’s commonplace to hear elected officials discussing the rampant fraud in legal immigration programs. Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt has blocked attempts to extend Haitian TPS and to convert TPS holders into green-card recipients under a mass-amnesty bill.

“Temporary must mean temporary. And elections must have consequences,” Schmitt said during a speech on the Senate floor.

Senator Eric Schmitt



@SenEricSchmitt
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Last week, I blocked 350,000 Haitians getting new TPS.

Today, I blocked mass amnesty for millions of illegals.

I will always object to mass amnesty. I will always object to mass migration.



https://twitter.com/i/status/2082542867520557432

3:04 PM · Jul 29, 2026

When a governor from a red state still speaks the language of the pre-2016 Republican Party, it’s insulting to the voters who put him in charge of protecting their way of life. These policies dilute every serious attempt we have at regaining our sovereignty from the blob.

Rasmussen polling after the Supreme Court decision showed 51 percent of likely voters approving the ruling and 57 percent agreeing that TPS was never intended as a pathway to permanent status. Those numbers reflect a broader consensus among Americans that the country cannot continue absorbing the accumulated effects of every prior administration’s decisions.

Holding these views should be disqualifying for Republican officeholders who claim to speak for the party. When a Republican echoes the talking points of the open-borders lobby, he legitimizes the insidious idea that there are jobs Americans won’t do or that we have some moral requirement to keep people who have “put down roots.”

The presence of U.S.-citizen children does not create an entitlement for the parents to stay when the underlying temporary condition ends. The U.S. is not uniquely obligated to absorb the failures of Haitian governance forever.

Right now our immigration policies rest with the executive branch because Congress has failed to codify any of Trump’s executive orders. Once he leaves office, a new administration will bring back the taxpayer-funded NGOs, weaponize bureaucrats, and empower judges who were curtailed under Trump.

Our elected officials are not appointed to manage the social welfare of foreign countries; they are put into office to protect the interests of their own states’ citizens. And Americans voted for a president who promised to end TPS and begin removals. They want their country back.

DeWine’s comments are the perfect reminder that the fight is not even close to being over.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/07/30/r...an-ohio-trump/