Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio spoke at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina on Wednesday. At the event, he continued to criticize immigrants from Haiti, saying that people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or other approved immigration statuses are “illegal immigrants” and should be deported.
Karl B. DeBraker/AP
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Karl B. DeBraker/AP
RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance said Wednesday that Haitian immigrants with legal immigration status are “illegal immigrants” who are illegally protected from deportation, suggesting that would change if Trump wins the election.
Immigration is a top issue for the Republican Party, and one of Trump’s signature campaign pledges is to carry out the “biggest deportation” in American history on his first day in office if elected.
Asked after his speech in Raleigh on Wednesday what the Trump administration would do about immigrants already in the U.S. legally, Vance suggested those immigrants were granted protection illegally and criticized Vice President Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, for the current administration’s use of mass parole and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people arriving from certain countries.
“What’s fundamentally illegal is Kamala Harris saying she’s going to give parole to millions of illegal immigrants who are coming into this country, not on a case-by-case basis,” Vance said. “Just because Kamala Harris waves the amnesty wand doesn’t magically make them legal. Her border policies are disgraceful, and I’m still going to call people illegal immigrants.”
The Biden administration recently extended temporary legal protected status for undocumented immigrants from Haiti living in the US until February 3, 2026, which protects them from deportation but does not give them permanent legal status. While Vance spoke specifically about Haiti, nationals of more than a dozen countries, including Venezuela, Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan, may also be granted TPS.
The community of Springfield, a mid-sized city between Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, has been in turmoil with bomb threats, evacuations and harassment of residents after Vance, Trump and other Republicans spread false claims that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets.
of The Wall Street Journal On Wednesday, the city of Springfield reported that Vance’s staff contacted the city manager to ask about the veracity of the provocative claim, found it to be false and shared it anyway.
“He specifically asked, ‘Are these rumors true that pets are being taken and eaten?'” Mayor Brian Heck told the outlet. “I said, ‘No.’ There is no evidence or reports that prove this is true. I told them these claims are unfounded.”
The harassment and attention came to a head after Trump mentioned Springfield during last week’s presidential debate, a Republican move to highlight the unpopularity of the Biden administration’s handling of illegal immigration and border security issues.
In North Carolina, Vance continued to play the role of attack dog for the Trump campaign, saying the Biden-Harris administration’s “shameful” stance on immigration means “we’re going to let in millions of illegal immigrants to drive up housing costs, overwhelm our hospitals and prevent our children from learning in our local schools.”
“Who agreed?” Vance asked. “Who in this room, who in this country, agreed to allow millions of foreigners to come into this country unchecked, unscreened? No one did.”
Vance also deflected questions about how his administration would deal with the economic fallout of mass deportations, which would disproportionately affect industries such as agriculture and construction that rely on immigrant workers.
“First of all, when you talk to farmers, they are just as upset about an open border as most other people,” he said. “So farmers, and certainly I, find the idea that the only way to maintain a productive agricultural economy is to let 25 million legal aliens into this country totally unconvincing.”
