Name: Springfield Residents Debate Economic Impact of Immigration and Trump’s Policies
Uploaded: 2025-04-30T04:01:00Z
Duration: 12 min 8 s
Description: President Trump thrust Springfield, Ohio, onto the national stage during the 2024 election. As his second term unfolds, residents tell WSJ what his immigration policies mean for the community.

https://www.barrons.com/client

Topics

Memberships

Tools

Customer Service

Network

Newsstand

For Business

For Education

For Advertisers

Account

About Barron's

bolded

unBolded

Ken Burns, the filmmaker behind the documentary miniseries "The American Revolution" and others, spoke to Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260507/0291a39f-ea0f-4e3b-8f5f-c6783863e213/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Filmmaker Ken Burns on 'the Most Important Revolution in History'

Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, discusses how they scale their business, their global footprint, and investing in digital assets.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260506/c85686e1-e814-47e7-a3dc-72a0170fa2c9/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Citigroup CEO on Keeping Competitors at Bay

As CEO of Citigroup, Jane Fraser tells Barron’s Andy Serwer about her goals for the future.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260506/904afc41-63ad-4d30-94d5-fe292999af50/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Planning for Growth at Citigroup

Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, sat down for an interview with Barron's Editor at Large Andy Serwer.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260430/9cbc994b-3c3c-4ab2-994c-1363ccf00ade/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Citigroup CEO: 'We're Cheap. Get on the Train.'

Michel Khalaf, chief executive officer of MetLife, discusses how he’s navigating the current market.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260501/91689664-d41c-4215-8400-ea340e71cf8d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Risk Management in a K-Shaped Economy

“I’m a big believer in a level playing field,” Michel Khalaf, chief executive officer of MetLife, tells Barron’s Andy Serwer.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260501/0a4674b6-10e7-4a91-bd96-c6a2e6aa7fe2/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Why MetLife’s CEO Supports Private Equity in Insurance

Michel Khalaf, chief executive officer of MetLife, spoke to Barron's editor at large Andy Serwer.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260423/d5471223-ead4-4616-a52a-63b6722abe1e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

MetLife's CEO Explains How AI Has Helped the Insurance Company

Constantine Alexandrakis, CEO of the executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates, discusses the pattern of higher turnover rates and shorter tenures of CEOs.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260501/2fec28b4-35fb-4ff1-9864-55d5538b0973/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Being a CEO Is Becoming More Complicated, According to This Executive

At Barron's

"Your 9-5...is just not going to do it," Nick Magguilli, personal finance expert, said on Barron's Streetwise podcast.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251216/e6897805-d131-4cc4-9c59-ca03b0c0b958/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How to Scale Your Net Worth

TJ Thornton, Head of Global Research Product Marketing at BofA Securities, talks to Jack Hough about his favorite stocks outside of AI.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251210/f9c1a95c-5a0e-4349-9fe4-73b3ac53bfb8/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

BofA’s Favorite Non-AI Stocks

Jack Hough talks to TJ Thornton, Head of Global Research Product Marketing at BofA Securities about diversifying stocks to hedge AI risks.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251210/8e164ff7-1500-4c2f-8713-e891c640a0f4/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Evaluating Investing Opportunities Beyond AI

Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, breaks down the value of tokenizing stocks in different markets.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251126/f86d65ea-bd8b-4777-b6b0-80f7bb12027e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Unpacking Tokenization for Everyday Investors

Jack Hough talks to Steve Quirk, chief brokerage officer at Robinhood, about trends in retail investing.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251126/a9cbdcc6-f060-4fc9-a15e-396924e25946/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Robinhood Reshaped the Trading Landscape for an Entire Generation

Streetwise host Jack Hough sat down with strategist Scott Wren to discuss how the AI-fueled market run stacks up against the dot-com boom.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251111/bd2e1a5b-1a6e-4543-8133-dcc63f69b5dc/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

AI vs. The Dot Com Bubble

Bank of America’s Haim Israel shares what’s next for Nuclear Energy development.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250930/ab4fc336-af44-4af2-8e40-9ae6f04a445e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Outlook For Nuclear

Jack talks to Lyft CEO David Risher about growth potential in the company.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250929/ae62b70e-912b-4ce7-ae63-1b2652628bae/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Lyft's Ride to Profit

The stock market is expensive. What does that mean for your portfolio? Jack sits down with Franklin Templeton’s Matt Quinlan to talk dividend investing, and whether it’s a good move in a pricey market.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250911/9c85e132-d710-4458-9467-aa69d4f25ae0/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Dividends and Capital Appreciation

Barron's Streetwise

CEO Chris Todd explains how the company is providing core technology to RIAs and broker dealers while building infrastructure to meet future advisor needs in areas like alternative investments and digital currencies.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260512/06d41382-0347-4765-b253-994badc172a3/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Envestnet’s ‘Bullseye’ Strategic Approach  

Interviews with top wealth management professionals about topics including compensation, hiring, marketing, next-gen, and more.

CEO Chris Todd says the company is using AI to increase internal productivity and leveraging its large data set to provide "investment data insights" to help advisors manage client portfolios.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260512/4207fb3b-4df7-43b2-8c1e-32d3cb75967f/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Envestnet Is Harnessing AI and Data 

Yie-Hsin Hung, president and CEO of State Street Investment Management, describes how the company addresses retirement challenges like increased longevity and the shift of responsibility from pensions to individuals.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260428/266b9598-bb99-4025-9b2e-d17b76104723/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Empowering Investors to Better Prepare for Retirement

Yie-Hsin Hung, president and CEO of State Street Investment Management, says that retirement is a vital business segment, accounting for about a quarter of the company’s global assets.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260428/ea1e71f0-04bc-4b92-9b82-e52911542bd5/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Retirement Is a ‘Very Important Part’ of State Street’s Business

ETF flows reveal a “widening out” of exposure away from large caps, says Yie-Hsin Hung, president and CEO of State Street Investment Management.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260428/735ae074-7b28-4394-879a-5959b7675c9e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

U.S. Investors Are Embracing Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Stocks

Yie-Hsin Hung, president and CEO, says the company is focused on growth in fixed income products, international markets, and the overall wealth category.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260428/718c379d-03d5-4861-be33-fa3c4f56cef7/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Where State Street Investment Management Sees Opportunity

Within five years, “the consumer will have the ability to go online and design their financial advisor—what they look like, how they talk, how they interact, what they remember,” says Rob Nelson, CEO and founder of NorthRock Partners.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260415/09483094-28db-4623-a9b2-df5b9327dffa/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Future AI Advisor

Rob Nelson, CEO and founder of NorthRock Partners, explains why he is optimistic about the future of financial advice and the potential for advisors to form meaningful client communities.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260415/4bc66985-8aab-4e8a-b646-8e3023cdd9b0/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Jevons Paradox and Placing a Premium on Community

Rob Nelson, CEO and founder of NorthRock Partners, says clients today place a premium on having free time and peace of mind.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260415/528964a5-1d56-41bf-9931-bf152533679b/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Client Expectations Have Changed in the Past 15 Years

Barron's Advisor The Way Forward

A “willingness to roll up your sleeves and understand the issues that your clients are facing, not just from an investment perspective,” is common among the industry’s most successful, says Kelly Gaur, a Mercer Advisors regional vice president.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260319/318adb2f-a888-4f30-b182-c791e27f98ab/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Best Advice for Someone Considering Wealth Management as a Career

Kelly Gaur, a Mercer Advisors regional vice president, says she was drawn to working for a registered investment advisor partly because they generally offer a more personalized, modern approach to wealth management.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260318/5575e9ca-0b48-4fb9-8e43-82aae1b3e3fc/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Appeal of Working for an RIA

“The best client development professionals are those who have served clients in some capacity,” says Kelly Gaur, a Mercer Advisors regional vice president.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260318/c1638929-6b21-4573-9deb-4f78e1ffa1d7/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Client-Facing Experience Can Help Advance Your Career

The Mercer Advisors regional vice president discusses her business development role and tips for breaking into the industry and gaining valuable experience in a non-advisory capacity.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260318/f2c2c9a5-cb67-4167-a48b-7fe4a9285615/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Kelly Gaur: Tips for Pursuing Non-Advisor Roles in Wealth Management

“You want to make sure that everybody's excited and prepared and that you're all pulling the rope in the same direction,” says Nate Fisher, managing director and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/20285ef5-c115-435f-9291-e4f2d5b166a9/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

A Successful Transition Requires Honesty and a ‘Heavy Lift’

Young advisors considering a succession plan should maximize engagement with clients because “it can take a long time to gain that trust and build those relationships,” says Nate Fisher, managing director and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/236fdaa2-5acb-48e9-b16d-e20b58846487/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Succession Planning and Establishing Trust With Clients

The Carson Wealth managing director and wealth advisor says his decision to partner with the firm was driven by the need for increased capacity for holistic services and a clear succession plan for his retiring father.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/33bb1217-c8be-4358-ba17-6238cbab6fa1/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Nate Fisher: Lessons Learned From a Successful Partnership

As trust grows, advisors tend to spend less time discussing investments and more time on clients’ families and well-being, says Nate Fisher, managing director and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260305/d2d3903a-994f-4ae7-82be-706929930b3d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Trusted Advisors Focus Less on Investments, More on Clients' Lives 

Serving tech founders is a full-time, long-term effort that often requires significant upfront work before a successful, revenue-generating relationship is established, says Katie Partridge, a Morgan Stanley private wealth advisor.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260219/abc63bad-4c7a-474b-b4a8-b4feae461375/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Landing Founders as Clients Requires Patience and Hard Work

Barron's Advisor Next Generation

Government policy shapes retirement regardless of savings or lifespan. With Social Security's trust fund facing a 2033 shortfall, what fixes are coming? Our experts discuss policy shifts and how to budget your benefits.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260410/aea80278-298b-458e-8bcd-f378796d6328/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

What's Next for Social Security?

Stocks swoop and soar as investors weigh AI hype against rate-cut "tea leaves." Our panelists explain how to drown out the noise, chart your own winning path,and identify investments that offer true long-term rewards.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260410/586aecf7-117b-4f3e-86f0-6869d907e671/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Riding the Market Roller Coaster

The capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Middle East tensions are reshaping oil supply expectations. The U.S. is intervening in energy markets in decades-unseen ways. Experts break down what’s next for oil, gas and energy stocks.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260212/9779ec13-602a-4a38-bb73-495ff464a24f/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Oil and Gas in a Volatile World

For the first time in decades, U.S. power demand is rising - driven by AI data centers, EVs and electrification. Utility and clean-energy stocks are climbing, but costly buildouts threaten affordability. We explore what’s next for the power trade.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260212/81a81fdd-47b4-44f6-93d1-7597a7fab032/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

The Gold Rush in Electricity

Will Nvidia and other technology companies keep powering the stock market in 2026? We'll speak with two veteran money managers about their views on tech and their favorite stocks for the coming year.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251212/5683d7a0-ed1f-4e3c-b913-bb3367ea3abd/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Finding Bargains in a Pricey Market

Explore what could go right for investors, and what could go wrong, in a year that will see the AI trade evolve, the Fed's leadership change, and global competition for resources increase in this 2026 Outlook.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251212/573f5954-c4ab-43e9-804d-f1ea93fbb70c/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Meeting the Challenge

Stocks are expensive, risks abound, and AI is about to change the world. Other than that, building a calamity-proof retirement portfolio should be a cinch. Tune in as two veteran money managers size up the markets and share their investment ideas.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250211/17a5e7d6-7c36-44b0-a35e-bf5ac3a24194/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Saving for a Sunny Day

Research shows that people greatly underestimate the healthcare costs they’ll face in retirement. Learn from experts how to estimate those costs, prepare for potential long-term care needs, and manage healthcare expenses in retirement.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250211/e7c022d9-badf-4e95-8e7c-0b6fce9f7823/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Are You Fiscally Fit?

Surging power demand, new energy sources, and growing competition have spurred the utility industry to become more innovative than ever before. Our panelists will unpack the changes afoot and explore what lies ahead for companies, customers, and investors.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240917/001ea098-1fcc-4da5-9f0e-a3b149bbb2fb/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Not Your Father's Utility

Barron's Roundtable

Whether you're leading a transition, building a scalable team, or just trying to stay ahead of the curve, this episode will give you practical insights to lead smarter and grow stronger.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20251010/fd26d60b-d1e6-409b-b51b-101da4aaa368/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Next-Gen Leadership Meets Smart Innovation

Electric vehicles sales are growing but not at the pace some expected. Some would-be buyers worry about the range of EV charging, and others are swayed by politics. But innovators from Detroit to Silicon Valley still envision a dramatic shift in how we get around. What’s going on and what’s next?

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240603/5784fa60-791c-47ad-9740-42e4553de5c4/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Forces Shaping EV Adoption and the Future of Driving

Success in improving the power grid to accommodate the electricity demands of the future will be a boon for companies doing the work and utilities that succeed. Explore the investing risks and opportunities.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240522/2b825c69-2687-4d88-923b-0c8f523a2f67/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How to Invest in Initiatives to Bolster the Power Grid

Joanna Rotenberg, Fidelity's president of personal investing, discusses ways to make investing more accessible and how to bolster your own financial security.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20231025/8ad733df-ac90-41fd-9655-7761b3e0532c/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Mind the Gap: Demystifying Investing

Reshma Kapadia sits down with Cozy Wittman of College Inside Track to discuss how to tackle all things college, from what admission officers are seeking today, to navigating the different ways to funding higher education and evaluating the ROIs.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20230515/b7229011-05cc-42ec-9c16-1d7752ec668d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Decoding the College Search and Financing Puzzle

Nicole Webb, financial advisor and SVP at Wealth Enhancement Group, shares ways to navigate the real estate market this spring whether you are a first-time buyer, a retiree downsizing or someone who is relocating or looking for a second home.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20230424/93eb00e1-caf0-4e83-9fc7-b502a57dc546/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Pro Tips on Buying and Selling a Home

Reggie Fils-Aimé, former president and COO of Nintendo of America, joins Barron's deputy editor Alex Eule to discuss his unlikely rise to the top, and the risks he took once there to beat the odds and achieve success.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20220630/61e2296d-ab1a-4216-ae65-24676447c616/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Nintendo's Former President Disrupted the Gaming Industry

2050 Wealth Planners co-CEO Lazetta Rainey Braxton, Sequoia Financial Planners vice president Elizabeth Scheiderer, and MoneyZen founder Manisha Thakor offer tips on how to prepare for recession, inflation, caregiving needs.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20220617/a71025ce-518b-49b9-b098-21417863f8ce/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Financial Advice for the Inflation-Weary

Families and advisors have a lot to navigate when it comes to generational wealth transfer. Add sustainable investing to the list. Examine strategies to help close the generational divide. From the Dow Jones Energy & Sustainability event series.

https://m.wsj.net/video/20230210/85cbf3f9-b5ab-4bfa-93c6-f8e8a247d386/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Sustainable Investing and the Wealth Transfer

Barron's Events

Level Up

Barron's Explains

Back to Business

Great Investors

MarketWatch

Video Center - Barron's home

President Trump thrust Springfield, Ohio, onto the national stage during the 2024 election. As his second term unfolds, residents tell WSJ what his immigration policies mean for the community. Photo: David Hall

https://m.wsj.net/video/20250429/356ea68f-3d41-4548-bae3-2d0de9776617/2/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

President Trump thrust Springfield, Ohio, onto the national stage during the 2024 election. As his second term unfolds, residents tell WSJ what his immigration policies mean for the community.

Springfield Residents Debate Economic Impact of Immigration and Trump’s Policies

We're dealing with a quasi-legal status here with our Haitian population.

They're here legally, and not even quasi-legally. They're here legally.

They're not troublemakers. They are just trying to thrive.

Michelle: Springfield, Ohio, is at the center of the immigration debate, forced into the spotlight after this.

They're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats.

Michelle: Now, with President Trump in office, his deportation efforts are ramping up.

Newscaster: President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration is expanding.

Newscaster: Migrants lined up, handcuffed, and led onto a military aircraft.

I also canceled Temporary Protected Status for migrants from Haiti.

This puts Springfield's migrants, many of whom have this status, known as TPS, at risk for deportation. So we asked Springfield residents what that would mean for their city. I know that a lot of you have said that you haven't seen maybe a lot of ICE activity yet in Springfield, but how do you think that that would impact the community if it were to seriously happen?

Oh, we're definitely going to take an economic hit with the loss of any number that should get deported. There's no doubt about that.

Do you think it's worth it, Laura?

I am a law and order person, and if the federal government is telling the city of Springfield they have to engage in the deportations, then I would expect that the city would cooperate with the federal government.

Camille, you're a business owner. How would that impact you and fellow business owners?

There are so many benefits to having diversity and Haitian immigrants here in our community. All of the businesses that they've opened up then have a trickle-down effect because each business has a business that it works with. There's been so much investment, from a social service perspective, from those of us that have made personal self-investments to this population influx. So, essentially, to take away that, those investments that have been made are kind of for naught.

Officials say immigration helped push the city's population up roughly 25% since 2020. Many residents said the influx helped turn around the city's falling labor force. Chris, I know you have several Haitian employees. How are they feeling?

When I say I'm worried about losing some of my employees, I have several that are here under TPS. They have an employee authorization document. They're here legally, and not even quasi-legally. They're here legally. But I'm gonna lose them, potentially, unless they can find another way to stay here, in August. And so our community needs a few more doctors because we're in a shortage area. So we're gonna lose, I think, more than we realize now, and it'll probably takes several years to realize that.

Michelle: TPS offers deportation protection to people from countries with dangerous conditions, like the ongoing gang violence in Haiti. It allows migrants to apply for work permits while here, and work is part of what brought Haitians to Springfield.

Professionals, doctors, teachers, police officers, people with great skills had to leave their country. Children who were just about to finish high school, those of them who were at university levels, they're all here at Springfield. But they have been reduced to work at a level that they never used to work before, and try to adjust themselves. You can imagine being like a judge in your country, finding yourself working at Amazon, in a factory, or wherever.

But the population increase also came with challenges: language and cultural barriers, strains on schools and hospitals, and a tighter housing market. Can you speak a little bit to some of the growing pains that you guys went through with this, you know, sudden influx of people?

So we were experiencing challenges with things like translation, understanding one another. We would have challenges with people in a waiting room who felt that, you know, maybe they were a traditional citizen who felt like something was being taken away from them because somebody else was being served.

Would some level of deportation actually help with those issues?

I don't know the best answer for that. Probably wouldn't affect me directly, but I'm sure that it would affect city of Springfield.

The way that we can stabilize our tax base is, you know, by increasing the population. And county government, the way that we raise funds for our general fund to support our infrastructure is through sales tax income. Sales tax is paid by people who live here and people who visit here, and particularly those who shop locally. If that was diminished significantly by deportation, it would create a reduction in the receipts that we're able to draw on.

Laura, what do you think?

Well, then maybe we should lower the sales tax in Clark County, especially if we lose people. Because if you lower the sales tax, then more people, of a fewer amount of people, will be spending more because they can buy more in the county.

And then we'll have to cut services.

Well, no. Have you ever done that study to see if you lowered the sales tax, then more people would be buying more stuff in the county, so the government would have more money. It's called Reaganomics.

Laura, I wanna go back to the question of do you think some measure of deportation would alleviate some of these problems that you've been identifying in Springfield?

If it's targeting and taking people who are violent, like the TdA, Venezuelan gangs, which I know we don't have here, but if those are the people who are deported, then, yes, we should be deporting. As soon as somebody gets pulled over or arrested, and they're sitting in that jail right over there, and it's found out that they are an illegal or they do not have proper status, then they should be deported, with a trial first.

Just in regards to Laura's comments, things like that are very difficult to hear. And I know we talk a lot along party lines, and a lot of this has been politicized, but at some point, we must remove ourselves from our political affiliation and operate in our humanity, and not in all of the semantics that are surrounding this issue.

TPS was previously extended through February 2026, but Trump moved the end date up to August 2025, at which point up to 1/2 a million Haitians across the US that are eligible for TPS, including those in Springfield, would be subject to deportation.

So for the TPS people, they know that they are more, it's a more, a fragile status. They are scared because they know that if they are going there, the same thing that pushed them away to migrate are still there. Even the American Embassy in Haiti cannot operate properly because of the gangs, of violence. And they know that going back is like a suicidal decision, going back there now.

Michelle: TPS recipients have few paths to a more permanent legal status. The main one is to apply for asylum, which would make them a refugee, but that process can take more than three years, and full citizenship is also difficult. Immigrants aren't eligible with TPS alone.

As far as the TPS, you know, I think we're all being educated on immigration and learning new things, but I just was wondering how many Haitians that have been here for quite a while have looked at going through the process of citizenship? I just was curious on that part.

I am not sure that there is like a path to citizenship for people having TPS. And it's a general thing in the US. It's very difficult for you just to get a green card or citizenship. Some other countries normally give you a period of time to live in the country. If you're doing good, they can normally give you a permanent resident, but it's not the case for the US.

Chris, I know that you have tried to work with your employees to see if there's some kinda more permanent legal status they can apply for. What's that been like?

Difficult. In a single word, difficult. Viles is right. It is an expensive, time-consuming process. It is very complex. Requires not just a lawyer, but an immigration lawyer, and even subdivided down, immigration lawyer who specializes in employment. And so we've made connections with our employees, to say, "Hey, we've heard that people have had some success talking with these folks." Trying our best to connect them. But it is, in a word, it's extremely difficult.

Michelle: These issues were also on voters' minds in November, when Republicans across the country listed immigration as a key reason they supported Trump.

Immigration did play a role in my vote, but it wasn't necessarily immigration. It was, you know, I was looking at the border situation, which, that was a big concern. You know, people were coming across, not vetted. There does need to be an easier way to become a citizen.

Have you connected what's been going on at the border with what happened in your town? Or does it feel like a different issue to you?

Well, I think it's a totally different issue because the Haitians that came here are TPS, and that's a quasi-legal status. They did not come here through the open-door policy of the Biden-Harris administration. You're comparing apples with oranges, okay? There was a huge influx coming across the border, of hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people, that are not TPS, okay? They're just plain illegal.

I don't know that people thought that critically about it, and that was certainly how it was positioned, that the situation that we were experiencing here was somehow ruining our community, and that was a result of what was happening at the border. That wasn't at all the truth, but that's how it was positioned as a political talking point, and our community ended up in the middle of that, which was very disappointing to me.

In closing, do you feel like you and your community are better off, worse off, than you were before anyone knew your name and before this election?

I think that there's a lot of dialogue going on right now, which is healthy, and I think we're going to be just fine. I think we're on the upswing. Economically, I'd like to see the city do better, for sure. We definitely need to do economically better to benefit everybody, immigrants included.

I will always hold on to hope because that's the only driving force for change, but I am also very aware of the impending uncertainty due to what's happening at a federal level, and the trickle down to the local level. So I'll remain optimistic, but I'm also very aware of the implications.

I can tell you that, from my experience, that you've got the best Haitians here. They're not troublemakers. They are just trying to thrive, work, and send their kids to school.