Only days after two Haitian pastors were detained by federal immigration agents in Springfield, Ohio, the wife of one of the pastors, Denise Adrien Gedeon, arrived at a Friday (Aug. 28) evening vigil in support of Haitians in the embattled city.
Asked to speak, she took the microphone at Champion City Church. Her voice trembling, eyes closed and hand raised, she began to sing: “We give you all the glory. We worship you our Lord, you are worthy to be praised.”
Then she spoke in Haitian Creole about her faith and God, with Viles Dorsainvil, a Haitian community leader and pastor, interpreting. “Despite everything, despite the difficult time, we believe in him, and we believe he will see us through,” she said, adding she did not want money or food — just the return of her husband, Joubert Adrien, whom she met singing in a church choir in Haiti in 1999. He was detained Aug. 20.
Gedeon’s plea was part of an especially turbulent week in Springfield, Ohio. After the arrests of two Haitian pastors, Adrien and Julio Dumano, local Haitian leaders put out a call for support. More than 400 people responded — many of them faith leaders, some traveling from as far as Minnesota and Florida — to stand with Springfield. Three days after Gedeon’s plea, Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student, died in what his family is describing as a suicide.
Since the U.S. government removed temporary protected status for Haitians a few weeks ago, the Ohio city has been besieged by daily ICE raids, with over 30 Haitians detained by ICE, according to the Haitian Support Center, a nonprofit that assists Haitian nationals in Springfield. The organization estimates that ICE has outfitted more than 100 people with ankle monitors to track their whereabouts.
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With about 10,000 Haitians living in the city of 58,000, many have been hiding out in their homes, fearing detainment. A small contingent of local Haitian community leaders, several pastors themselves, braved Friday’s vigil. Many Haitian churches sat empty Sunday morning.
During the weekend, hundreds of volunteers — Baptists, Unitarian Universalists, Mennonites, Quakers and others — packed food boxes for Haitians in hiding, held phone drives asking elected officials to release the pastors and stood outside Haitian churches on Sunday morning to advocate for Haitians’ right to worship without fear.
That fear has been fueled by the flurry of rapid ICE raids happening throughout the city. Around 9 a.m. on Aug. 20, Gedeon said that she and her husband, Adrien, were riding in a car with Adrien’s cousin and his wife. They had just pulled out of a gas station when a car sped in front of them and slammed on the brakes. Four other cars surrounded their vehicle.
“At that time, I kept saying, ‘Please God, let us go, free us, please God, let us go,’” Gedeon recalled, speaking through an interpreter. Several masked officers she identified as ICE agents approached the vehicle and asked to see IDs and work permits, she said. The officers handcuffed the two men. Gedeon, who cried out to her husband before he was taken away, said she hasn’t seen him since.
A father of two living in the U.S. for five years, Adrien is the Haitian ministry pastor at High Street Church, a Nazarene congregation in Springfield. Local advocates say he has no criminal history and no final order of removal. The couple had temporary protected status and have pending asylum cases, according to Gedeon.
Speaking to media on the back steps of High Street Church, head Pastor Marty Dennis explained that Adrien was part of a group of Haitians who visited his church four years ago seeking a place to worship in Haitian Creole. What began as 15 Haitians worshipping in a living room grew to over 100 people meeting in the church gymnasium, while Dennis’ congregation held worship in their sanctuary.
Now the gym is empty. The Haitian congregants are worshipping remotely while Adrien is held in Butler County Jail, about an hour from Springfield. Even in prison, Dennis and Gedeon said, Adrien is ministering to those around him. “He loves God more than life itself,” said Dennis. “I couldn’t imagine doing life without him.”
Gedeon, with the loss of her work permit, now stays at home, caring for their two kids, ages 7 and 14, alone. Last week, their youngest celebrated her seventh birthday without her father. But she said she leans on her faith in God, saying, “Maybe this happened for good reason, and the good reason was for him to go in that detention center, preach to people, be close to people, and give them hope.”
Michaelle Louis, a Haitian community organizer with Undivided — one of the several faith groups behind the week’s gathering of faith leaders — said ICE is deliberately detaining men — “the head of the family.” The idea is, she said, “if they deport the husband, the rest of the family is going to follow.”
Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church and founder of G92, a nonprofit organization that advocates for immigrants, said he learned in meetings with regional and national ICE leaders that their aim is to make living in the U.S. unbearable for Haitians.
“I was surprised how candid they were,” said Ruby. “They said … ‘We’re going to make life as miserable as possible.’”
Though Springfield doesn’t have the largest Haitian population in the U.S., pro-immigrant organizers say their city has been a political target since then-candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, spread falsehoods about the city’s Haitians eating pets in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. Nearly two years later, Haitians in Springfield said the ankle monitors, which many compared to slave shackles, are part of a Springfield-specific ICE experiment.
On Monday, 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel, a pre-med student and soccer player at Wright State University, was fatally struck by a tractor-trailer. Bel’s family is describing his death as a suicide. Ohio State Highway Patrol called it “an open investigation.”
In a statement written by Bel’s father after his son’s death, he said his son had taken two trips to Cincinnati to plead with officers to remove his ankle monitor, which was visible when he played soccer. “After my son was outfitted with this ankle monitor, he felt like he was treated like an animal,” he wrote. The statement says Bel’s classmates bullied him because of the monitor.
A spokesperson for Wright State University said the university was “heartbroken” about the death of Bel. The university has “no confirmed information regarding complaints or investigations into bullying related to the student,” the spokesperson said in a statement, adding that “we remain dedicated to providing a campus community where every student feels safe, supported, included and welcomed.”
Ruby, who was with Bel’s parents Monday night, said he has seen “the extremes” in recent weeks.
“I believe in a good God who will eventually make all things right, who will punish evil and restore justice, but living in the here and now is really hard,” he said. One day he gathered with hundreds to protest ICE’s immigration policy. The next day, he said, he listened to “the sobs and screams” of Bel’s parents.
“We need a revival of the spirit of the prophets where people of faith demand justice in their government and in their churches,” he said.
On Sunday morning, dozens of clergy stood outside First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, one of the city’s largest Haitian congregations and home to Pastor Julio Dumano, an assistant pastor at the church who was detained on Aug. 25. The whereabouts of Dumano, who was described by fellow clergy as a “godly man,” are currently unknown.
Standing alongside the road, visiting faith leaders waved American flags and held signs that said, “Release Pastors Julio and Joubert” and “Jesus loves Haitians.”
Inside, nearly 40 volunteers and faith leaders sat in chairs alongside Haitian congregants, singing “How Great Thou Art” in Haitian Creole and in English. Though the once-packed church had only a few-dozen Haitian members that Sunday, their enthusiasm wasn’t diminished. The congregants, wearing suits, dresses and heels in bright colors, danced in worship and welcomed their visitors with enthusiasm.
“Thank you so much for coming,” Pastor Reginald Silencieux said warmly from the podium. “When I see your presence, it’s very encouraging. When Haitian people see you, they can see Jesus is alive. Amen?”
Hours later, over 400 people made their way to City Hall, where they shared an outdoor potluck, sang “We Shall Overcome” and heard remarks from local leaders. Speakers made three demands of ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and elected officials: release the pastors, stop outfitting Haitians with ankle monitors and stop “treating them inhumanely because of their nationality and the color of their skin.”
“We’re making these demands in the name of Christ,” Ruby said at the rally.
At the conclusion of Sunday’s event, Haitian pastor Bernadette Dor-Dominique invited attendees to march seven times around City Hall. She explained that the “Jericho march” was a reference to the biblical book of Joshua, which says God tore down the walls of Jericho after the Israelites marched around the city for seven days.
“It is a symbolic act of faith, unity, perseverance and trust in God when the situation appears impossible,” said Dor-Dominique. “We are walking against fear and division, standing together as one community.”
Since Springfield’s Haitian population became national news during the 2024 campaign, the city has endured bomb threats, neo-Nazi rallies and now an ICE surge. But pro-immigrant advocates, like Louis, say the city’s story remains one of resilience and faith.
“We are not powerless,” said Louis, one of the Haitian leaders who invited clergy to Springfield this weekend.
Ruby, for his part, said he was “encouraged” by the number of volunteers who showed up Sunday, but “until the entire church practices a faith that looks like Jesus, we have a lot of work to do.”
Kathryn Post is a reporter for Religion News Service based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
19 Responses
“pro-immigrant organizers say their city has been a political target since then-candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, spread falsehoods about the city’s Haitians eating pets in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.”
Maybe Christians should at least investigate claims of fake news
and not be so sure that only secular liberal news stations are the places to get honest to goodness real news .
09/that_media_narrative_about_pets_going_uneaten_by_haitian_migrants_in_ohio_is_starting_to_fall_apart.html
This seems like an AI psyop to me, but please provide the full link. Also, regardless of the claim – even if true – does not justify the inhumane treatment of Haitians nor any other people group. The blanket stereotype used by this administration is used to demonize and justify the harsh treatment of these people. This is not Christ’s way. “We are all things to all people.” This includes love. We are love; if we betray that we have lost our soul.
The Love Scriptures are not the suicide Scriptures .
Trump just had to put a freeze on Visa’s due to the high number of immigrants that go straight to welfare .
There is no easy way to do this but it would probably go much
smoother if the paid protesters would get out of the way
and the corrupt local governments would start obeying the law .
Due to the absolutely treasonous actions of the Biden administration of allowing open borders and the numbers being so
high extreme measures probably have to be taken .
I personally pray that as God knows who should stay and who should go that He would guide us in that process .
Perhaps you could join ICE and help implement more
palatable techniques in this sad and unfortunate situation .
And for the Suicidal Empathizers :
There is a wall around heaven and Jesus will rule on earth in
a walled city .
He doesn’t let everyone in and neither should we .
And we are still to apply the Constitution, which means these immigrants deserve due process. THAT is the issue, folks! It’s not that they are being removed, but it’s that HOW they are being removed is in direct violation of the Fifth Amendment.
Americans love bragging about how we are so great, and how this nation is “the greatest experiment” in democracy, etc….yet are ignorant to what our Constitution actually says. If we are so great, how about we obey our own laws?
The Haitians were one among a number of nationalities allowed “temporary” status in the USA. And that “temporary” status has been revoked legally by the President, as is his legal right to.
There is NO due process to this. Once your legal temporary status has been revoked, you are required to LEAVE the USA. In fact, our government has been more than generous to pay for a flight out of the country, and give them $2,000.
George – yes there is STILL due process given they are already on US soil. Procedural due process means:
– when their status changes, the government tells them what its doing and why (and substantive due process means that the government must prove a good and legitimate reason before passing any laws or changing their status in such a way that limits their fundamental rights);
– they are notified in a timely and fair manner (they cannot tell them on Tuesday at 5pm and send ICE to haul them in on Tuesday at 5:30pm);
– they are given the chance to speak for themselves;
– they get to be heard by an impartial party (judge or jury)
So, George, changing their status without due process (e.g., sending ICE in before they get a chance to be heard by an impartial party) violates our Constitution.
It’s hard to take this response seriously as there are reiterated GOP conspiracy theories about “paid protestors” and using language “treasonous actions of the Biden administration.” Look at what this current administration is doing, we have a king sitting on a throne pretending to be God. Don’t believe me? See what he posts.
I have no idea what the suicide Scriptures are and I did not mention it so that leads me to believe this is some AI authored response.
“Perhaps you could join ICE and help implement more
palatable techniques in this sad and unfortunate situation .”
I’ve served my time in the Corps. – I don’t need to join a trigger happy wannabe soldier force to attack my own kin. And joining it won’t make a difference to “palatable techniques” anymore than being a low rank in the Marine corps can affect policies. No thanks.
From Wikipedia :
Paid protesters or professional protesters[a] are people who participate in public outrage or objection in exchange for payment.[1][2] The expression may be directed against individuals, organizations and governments or against protests against the government with the aim of breaking up or discrediting a protest. In some contexts, people may be hired for optics to show increased public participation in the democratic process, as part of larger astroturfing tactics.
I would think a military man would be hip to such things as false flags and psyops and diversionary tactics .
There are interesting links in this thread you should examine.
Call me naive , but I think it’s an awesome development to
have a President with his own Spiritual advisory board considering the state of the nation today .
Maybe someday I’ll catch on that God is actually moving thru LGBTQ agendas and our nation will truly benefit from
that but for now I will have to stick to basic logic .
This is an important article. One fact not mentioned is that Pierre Demas Bel was a Marine Corp ROTC student.
The fact that our armed forces can move forward with recruitment and admission for students such as Pierre rather indicates the complete disconnect between policy makers in immigration and the armed services which would have absolutely understood Pierre’s status and STILL chose to offer him ROTC admission speaks to his excellence academically, physical fitness level and leadership skills. IF we are recruiting immigrant children who are willing to enter into the rigorous ROTC program, for presumed future service to this country the LEAST we can do is tell our policy makers to change the ICE mandate for ankle monitors and/or deportation for those following legal parameters of entry and participation in this country
If you’re not a lawful US citizen, you will be deported back to your home country. This is the law. Work to make your country good/great.
And if you are on US soil – especially if you had been granted temporary status (which means you were here LEGALLY) – the US is to follow its own Constitution in offering you due process. After all, isn’t that what makes us great?
And yet the white, evangelical church remains stubbornly silent.
Have you by chance noticed all these non-white and / or immigrant politicians popping up that seem dedicated to eradicating America ?
Or stealing from us ?
Do we have a national will anymore or are we just a bunch of
tribes angling for money and power ?
Our “national will” should involve obeying our national laws, should it not? Our own founding documents provide due process to these immigrants, especially since they were here legally and just experienced a change in status.
Or is our “national will” to only obey our national laws for “people who look like us”?
This article may be helpful in understanding the big picture .
Whether these people came to the country legally is
questionable as is the actions of the administration
enacting them .
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/10/biden_harris_team_still_flying_haitians_into_the_united_states.html
We had better get over our fear of being called “racist” if
we want to preserve our country and culture and start
getting those who are incompatible and those who are
hostile to our way of life on a plane outta here
irregardless of skin color.
Leftists have effectively used race baiting as a cudgel
to shut down dissent and advance their Globalist ( read —
one world government ) agenda on us .
Be not deceived :
In these last days mass migration is being used as a weapon
of war all over the world as a means of destabilising countries , infiltrating from within and influencing elections and making said countries vulnerable to conquest .
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth ”
Timothy 3:1-7
Anti Christ isn’t sitting around waiting for the Rapture to happen
so he can take over the world , he is moving his people into
position now .
At least pray for our country .
https://rumble.com/v2x01o2-joe-m-we-are-the-plan.html
Hans – it’s interesting you quote scripture while prioritizing “country” and “culture” and mentioning “skin color”.
God does not show favor along ANY of those lines.
Shout out to Bo French, who singled out LEGAL South Asain students at the University of Texas who were cheering their school at a football game (you can’t assimilate much more than that) for their RACE. Sounds like he’s your type of guy.
The GOP showing it’s true colors. Pun intended.
Non-citizens throwing their weight around, marching, making “demands” on a host nation’s immigration authorities enforcing the law, is not a good look for immigrant “communities.”
Sincerely, an American of Korean decent
A host country trying to get away with violating its own Constitution by denying legal migrants due process (promised under the 5th Amendment) is NOT a good look for “the greatest democracy”.