Some Haitian immigrants in Ohio told to report to ICE and given ankle monitors
Demonstrators chant and hold signs outside U.S. Supreme Court on April 29, 2026, in Washington, DC. The court heard arguments challenging DHS’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for asylum seekers. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of Haitian immigrants in Ohio who had Temporary Protected Status have been summoned by the Department of Homeland Security for in-person “check-ins” with the agency, where some have been fitted with ankle monitors, immigration advocates tell ABC News.
The move from the government comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration could end TPS for about 350,000 Haitians, as part of the administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
Steve Foster, the immigration policy coordinator for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said “Haitians with TPS, regardless of whether they have a pending asylum claim, have gotten a ‘DHS Call-In Letter’ to appear at ICE offices in person.”
Some have been given ankle monitors and future court dates, Foster said.
Viles Dorsainvil, executive director of a Haitian support group in Springfield, Ohio, confirmed the government’s effort to call Haitians in Ohio with TPS into ICE offices and fit some of them with ankle monitors.
“We are just helping these folks to go to this appointment, and when they get there, they interview them and eventually put [an] ankle monitor on them,” Dorsainvil said.
TPS status, established by the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, provides work authorization and protection from deportation if a foreign country is deemed by the government to be unsafe because of armed conflict, natural disaster, or “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, “Temporary Protected Status is exactly that — temporary. For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”
“What we would say now is it’s closing time, which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” the statement said.
Dorsainvil said that some TPS holders have lost their work permits, while others who have pending asylum cases still have valid work authorization.
“There is so much anxiety, and they are fearful, and they are uncertain when it comes to what they should do next,” he said.
Tarps are hung on scaffolding outside The Kennedy Center on June 13, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Kennedy Center board voted on Thursday to close the famed cultural institution for two years for renovations and to again add President Donald Trump’s name to the facade, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio member of the board, said in a statement.
David Richardson attends the initial meeting of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, May 20, 2025. (Tia Dufour/DHS)
(WASHINGTON) — The former acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator said that Texas got the help it needed during the historic and deadly flooding over July Fourth weekend last year, despite criticism heaped on the agency’s response,according to a new book set for release on Tuesday.
In the book, titled “Texas Flood: Power, Money, Politics, History, Bureaucracy and Tragedy,” David Richardson also outlined what he believed to be the source of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s downfall as well as discussing the Trump administration’s plans to restructure the agency.
“I prepared for the worst from the minute I got to FEMA, and a worst-case scenario did happen and we were able to effectively maneuver around obstacles to make sure that the people of Texas got what they needed in their time of need,” Richardson told ABC News in an interview. He said the agency prepared for worst-case scenarios “though a series of planning efforts and exercises.”
Democrats accused DHS of being slow on the response efforts in Texas. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Richardson resigned from FEMA abruptly in December 2025.
At the center of that decision was a memo put by Noem requiring that every contract above $100,000 must be personally signed off by her.
“I eventually had to make a decision where I overrode DHS headquarters and sent the support anyhow,” Richardson said, referring to Texas. “I knew the magnitude of the problem when I started looking at the low end of $500 million a day we’re going to have to write contracts for. If I’m going to have to have everyone over $100,000 approved by headquarters, that’s just another layer of bureaucracy.”
In the book, Richardson paints the picture of Department of Homeland Security putting put “spies” at FEMA headquarters, to see what he was doing, and a secretary concerned with her appearance more than actually getting work done.
Richardson recounts in the book one of his employees saying the memo would “kill” them during a disaster. A former Marine, Richardson said he viewed getting lifesaving support to Texas as essential, regardless of the cost.
“When a Marine or an Army ranger calls for support, they get what they need, regardless of the cost,” he said. “That’s how I viewed getting support during hurricanes or as it came to be during the flash flood in Texas.”
In practice, the cost saving measures were well intentioned, he said, but “he downstream effects of that memo…were never really considered.”
“I firmly believe that the 100K memo and the ramifications that it had was the beginning of the end for Secretary Noem,” he said.
Typically, FEMA administrators are on the ground immediately after a natural disaster strikes, but Richardson didn’t go to Texas immediately because he believed the “greatest point of friction” was in DC.
“I was going to go to Texas once the check was cashed,” he said. “I wasn’t going to Texas and tell them the check is in the mail. I made sure it was cashed before I went there to see the people of Texas.”
Richardson also detailed in the book how he spent one night in Gettysburg, Pa. when the floods hit over July Fourth weekend, and raced back to D.C. the morning after. He took criticism during his testimony by House Democrats, but outlined in his book that he worked throughout the trip.
In the book, he detailed the exercises FEMA ran to prepare for a disaster, including modeling what would happening during a Category 3 hurricane – which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to respond to.
Richardson told ABC News it was “not true” that FEMA withheld essential support from Texas, and that there were already FEMA teams on the ground to respond to the floods, including a FEMA team in Denton and utilizing the Coast Guard for search and rescue.
“The tragedy was, so many people died and the search and rescue teams had to get to Texas so they could recover the bodies,” he told ABC News.
Richardson said he realized that once his plan to reshape the agency wasn’t going to be considered and instead had to be worked through the FEMA review council, set up to recommend the future of the agency, he decided to resign.
The FEMA Review Council’s recommendations, the body which advised the DHS of reducing the size of the agency in DC don’t go far enough he says, and in the book he argues FEMA should not be under DHS, but report directly to the president.
“I realized OK, I’m just here for hurricane season,” he said. “And once hurricane season is over, I’m done because I don’t want to be in charge of a bloated Inefficient agency like FEMA that I can’t put on a diet.”
He called the agency “bloated, overweight and unhealthy,” and wanted to put FEMA “on a diet,” by reducing the number of employees at FEMA headquarters.
Michael Coen, the former FEMA chief of staff in the Biden and Obama administrations told ABC News that FEMA is a critical organization that supports people on their worst days.
“FEMA’s structure has been built to align the necessary resources and staff to address the risks the nation may face,” he said in response to Richardson’s critiques of FEMA being a bloated agency. “The Agency is continuously improving and learning to meet the mission.”
Flash flooding in Henry County, Indiana, caused this street to collapse, Aug. 12, 2026. (Henry County Sheriff’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — Amid floodwaters already up to the roofs of some homes and turning the streets of multiple cities into rushing rivers, Midwest residents are bracing for more severe storms on Thursday.
“When I looked out my window, I saw my fence floating past my window,” Karlie Frey, a resident of hard-hit Cambridge City, Indiana, told ABC Indianapolis affiliate station WRTV.
After being evacuated from her home on Wednesday via a rescue boat, Frey, who has lived in Cambridge City since 2009, said, “I’ve never seen it get this bad.”
Indiana, which recorded three storm-related deaths this week, was in the path of more severe storms expected to pound the Midwest on Thursday.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun declared a statewide disaster emergency on Thursday.
“Hoosiers’ safety is my top priority. Our state response is fully mobilized, resources are moving where they’re needed, and we will continue working around the clock to support every impacted community,” Braun said in a social media post on Thursday.
Braun is expected to meet with first responders in Cambridge City and survey the damage there to “ensure state resources are available to support the response and recovery efforts,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
Meanwhile, rescue operations resumed on Thursday for one person in Delaware County, Indiana, who was among four people who reportedly went into the Mississinewa River on Wednesday during significant flooding, authorities said. Three others were rescued from the river on Wednesday night, officials noted.
Flood watches also remained in effect in Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina, where showers and storms are possible on Thursday, keeping the threat of more flooding in place.
Like in recent days, storms expected from Des Moines, Iowa, to Lexington, Kentucky, and Knoxville, Tennessee, have the potential to train, or remain stationary, over the same areas, and could produce rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said severe isolated storms on Thursday are expected to occur across Iowa and Illinois, including the cities of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Springfield and Peoria.
The storms are expected to be accompanied by damaging winds, large hail and possible tornadoes.
Dangerous heat will also be a factor from the Midwest and Plains to the Southeast, all the way down to South Florida. More than 100 million people in over 15 states are under heat alerts on Thursday as a heat dome remains parked over the country’s Mid-South region.
Extreme heat warnings are in effect for Wichita, Kansas City, St. Louis and Paducah, Kentucky. Heat indices, which include humidity, will make it feel 111 in St. Louis and 110 in Kansas City.
Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to assess the damage from storms, floods, and at least five tornadoes, including three in southwest Chicago suburbs, that devastated the Midwest over the past two days.
Images from flooded areas of Cambridge City and elsewhere in Henry County showed floodwaters up to the roofs of some homes and many flooded streets impassable.
In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Cambridge City Town Council President Jim McLane described the flood in his small town of 1,700 people as “pretty devastating.”
McLane said he has lived in the area for 60 years and had never seen flooding “anything remotely compared to this.” He said flood waters rose “several feet higher than most people have seen it here before.”
McLane described a seven-to-eight-block area of flooded homes in Cambridge City, and said dozens of people had to be rescued by boat.
Henry County Sheriff John Sproles said more than 50 people were rescued on Wednesday from a flooded apartment complex in Henry County.
Henry County officials are also investigating a possible tornado that moved through New Castle, Indiana, on Wednesday, toppling trees and ripping the roof off a commercial building.
Sproles said he is concerned about additional rainfall hitting the area.
“Any more rain is really going to put us into much more significant problems,” he said.
Eric Stiles, who owns a plumbing company in Indiana, posted a video this week of damage caused by severe storms that hit Munster, Indiana, on Tuesday. The footage showed a line of massive trees uprooted in one residential neighborhood.
“It’s like driving through a war zone,” Stiles said in the video.
