‘Unshackle Springfield’: Faith leaders demand ICE stop ‘siege’ on city, release pastors
That’s what multiple faith leaders said the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 28, during a passionate press conference calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cease its “humiliating” treatment of local Haitian immigrants.
Jessica Orozco - Staff Writer | Springfield Sun-News | Aug 28, 2026 Updated Aug 31, 2026
“Springfield is under siege.”
That’s what multiple faith leaders said the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 28, during a passionate press conference calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cease its “humiliating” treatment of local Haitian immigrants.
Several faith and community leaders described the practice of requiring many Haitians to wear ankle monitors as putting them in “shackles,” like former enslaved people in the United States.
“We are here in 2026 and they are shackled,” local NAACP President Denise Williams said. “Unshackle Springfield. Unshackle Springfield. Unshackle Springfield. We are not in the 1900s; we are not going back to slavery, and this is what it looks like.”
Rev. Adam Banks of First Baptist Church of Springfield strongly condemned ICE’s tactics and said Haiti’s history as the first free Black republic that advocated for the abolition of slavery and “demonstrated Black determination” creates an obligation for him to “stand in solidarity and work beside my Black Haitian siblings who are being targeted by systems of detention, deportation, surveillance and electronic monitoring.”
“We must call these practices what they are — technologically advanced ankle and wrist shackles that are still as heavy as they were for my ancestors,” Banks said. “They continue a long history of anti-Black containment. Restricting people’s movements, separating families and treating persons as problems to be controlled instead of partners deserving protection. As shackles were a violation in the past, they are a violation today.”
Brian Easley, representing both Ohio and Indiana churches, said people should be angry.
“You ought to be angry of how we are treating our brothers and sisters. I’m angry. I’m very angry,” Easley said. “To put a shackle on a free person who’s done nothing wrong, to take their license away, to take the ability for them to make a living and feed their family, to be scared to go to the doctor, your children to go to school. I have the zeal of Christ; I am not going to sit back and let some evil, lying people who want to weaponize our color, to let this stand in our community.”
ICE activity has been visible in Springfield nearly every day in August, which has stoked intense fear in the Haitian community. Many are terrified to leave their homes at all, according to advocates.
But Haitians have complied with the government’s orders, and ICE knows where they live and work, said Haitian Community Help and Support Center President Vilès Dorsainvil.
“If they’re not hiding, if you’re asking for them, they will show and appear before the judge,” Dorsainvil said. “You ask them to go for ICE check-in, they do that. They know where they live and they’re not a threat to the community.”
The current tactics appear to be an “intentional” way “to humiliate them,” Dorsainvil said. He pointed to the ankle monitor as a symbol of slavery.
Court proceedings are continuing for Haitian immigrants seeking permanent status, but ICE continues to detain them — forcing them to wear ankle monitors and taking them into custody directly rather than allowing them to attend scheduled appointments and navigate the immigration process normally, Dorsainvil said.
Dorsainvil said that while other countries once looked to the U.S. as a role model, some are now using the Trump administration’s policies as a blueprint for how to mistreat Haitian immigrants themselves.
“I am calling out this administration to tell them that we deserve to be treated with dignity. We deserve to be treated as human beings. We are not animals,” Dorsainvil said, to a chorus of agreement. “We ask you, please stop treating the people the way you do.”
“You know where they live, you know where they work, they are in the USCIS system, they are in the court system,” Dorsainvil said. “If you want to deport them, you can do that properly; you don’t have to put them in jail. This is our ask. Give them what they deserve — the dignity. They deserve that.”
The press conference, hosted by faith group Springfield G92, featured clergy from across Springfield, the state and other parts of the country. As some spoke, other clergy appeared emotional, at times shedding or holding back tears.
Pastors also again asked for the release of Haitian pastor Joubert Gilbert Adrien, who was apprehended and is in the Butler County Jail on an ICE hold. Dorsainvil told the Springfield News-Sun that Adrien has not eaten since his arrest, and he has heard that other Haitians in the community are also not eating due to fear.
“He needs to be out immediately,” Carl Ruby, Central Christian Church pastor and Springfield G92 leader, said. “He is a good man with a congregation to serve and they are without a pastor right now.”
Ruby asked ICE to end daily “raids that are disrupting our city that are focused on peaceful people.” He said the resulting fears have decimated Haitian businesses’ customer bases.
Religious Republicans should write their representatives and express that “this is not what people who love Jesus do,” Ruby said.
“We can support border security, we can support the deportation of violent criminals, but we do not support this,” Ruby said. “This is like deporting Jesus, and that’s in Jesus’ word. We cannot let that happen.”
Ruby said he heard from a journalist in Haiti that as soon as people are deported back to Haiti, they “are getting off the plane and running for their lives.”
“They’re not getting the money that our government has promised. There’s been this promise, ‘We’ll give you an airplane ticket and we’ll give you $2,500 or something like that.’ That is not happening,” Ruby said, and said the promise of money is putting a target on people’s back for the gangs.
Hattie Millender of the PowerHouse Church of God in Springfield said now is the time for Christians to come together.
“God Almighty is waiting for our one voice, and if we all pray together and seek his face together, he will hear. He will hear,” Millender said. “The church must pray, speak truth, show compassion and stand with those who are afraid.”
In response to questions from this newspaper, the Department of Homeland Security sent the same statement it has sent each time it has responded to media inquiries:
“Every day, DHS is conducting law enforcement activities across the country to keep Americans safe. DHS does not discuss ongoing or future operations.
“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 good news is it’s not too late to get a $3,000 check and a free flight home.”
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