AUDIO: Micah Beckwith says local leaders should preemptively deport legal immigrants from Indiana town
GOP lieutenant governor nominee also makes vow to find, remove legal immigrants in Indiana who do not assimilate “into the American way of life”
On Thursday morning, Republican lieutenant governor nominee Micah Beckwith called into Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO to speak with host Kayla Blakeslee about immigration. (Audio and full transcript below.)
Specifically, what’s happening in Logansport, Indiana.
As with Springfield, Ohio, the town of Logansport has experienced a recent influx of legal immigrants from Haiti who are in the federal government’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.
(Note: an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the documents provided to TPS participants as “visas.” The TPS program is only for immigrants who already live in the United States.)
TPS provides protection from deportation as well as authorization to work in the United States for immigrants whose homeland is experiencing widespread violence and instability. Haiti is one of sixteen countries currently on the TPS list, along with nations like Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Many of the Haitian immigrants in Logansport were recruited to come work there in the Tyson Foods plant just outside city limits.
Earlier this year, Tyson’s associate director of human resources Garrett Dolan told Bloomberg that approximately 35% of the company’s workforce nationwide are immigrants, and if he had his way, that number would be even higher.
“We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them,” he said. “They’re very, very loyal.”
That’s an especially important characteristic in the meatpacking industry, where the work is incredibly dangerous and turnover is common. In fact, according to Dolan, Tyson expects to lose a full 40% of its 100,000 factory employees each year.
Its Logansport factory is the largest employer in Cass County, and the company appears to need the legal Haitian immigrants it has attracted to the community to meet its staffing needs.
In his radio interview with Blakeslee, Beckwith — who earlier this year bragged about being the only GOP candidate for lieutenant governor “with business experience” and said he would use it to help running mate Mike Braun “establish Indiana’s economy as one of the strongest in the nation” — didn’t mention Tyson at all.
Instead, he suggested, without evidence, that Logansport’s Haitian residents were there to take over the town.
“This is an invasion,” he told Blakeslee. “This isn’t immigration.”
Beckwith went on to predict that when their TPS designations expire, those Haitian immigrants will stay in Logansport with expired visas.
“We all know that they’re going to stay here,” he said. “They will be illegal at that point. But by that point, it’s already too late.”
Using his own unsubstantiated prediction as justification, Beckwith told Blakeslee that elected officials needed to preemptively deport Logansport’s legal Haitian immigrants.
“We have to have leaders in our local community that are willing to do the hard work of identifying the people who should not be in our community and then working with the state to get them out.”
Beckwith said that Logansport’s resources were “being drained by people who should not be here” and that the community was “sacrificing the very people God has called us to take care of, and that’s our community. Those are people that grow up here. Those are people that are born here. Those are people that come here legally and are a blessing to our society.”
(There is no evidence that the Haitian immigrants living in Logansport did not come to the United States legally.)
He added that legal immigrants who did not assimilate into “the American way of life […] do not belong here.”
(Beckwith did not define what the “American way of life” is, nor say who he believes should get to determine what that means.)
To those unassimilated individuals who he deems to have held onto too much of their native culture, Beckwith’s message was stark: “We are going to find you and we’re going to remove you.”
He concluded by saying that he and his running mate, current U.S. Senator Mike Braun, will make Indiana like Texas and Florida in terms of immigration policy.
“We will figure out a solution,” Beckwith said. “We’ll ship people to Martha’s Vineyard if we need to.”
WOWO: Kayla Blakeslee interviews Micah Beckwith on immigration (Oct. 17, 2024)
Kayla Blakeslee
Earlier this week in Logansport, I don’t know if you caught it, but it doesn’t matter, there was a city council meeting. Residents were and are super frustrated about some things that are happening there in their community.
The mayor essentially responding to the residents, saying there’s nothing he can do about this Haitian migrant influx because they are gaining entry via some federal programs, saying essentially that, you know, hey, our hands are tied. What say you to that response, Micah? Is the mayor of Logansport’s hands tied?
Micah Beckwith
Well, I think they’re only tied when they want to be tied. They’ll use the TPS, the temporary protective status that these migrants have, as cover to say “It’s not my fault, it’s the federal government’s fault.” But we all know. We can see through this.
This is an invasion. This is not immigration.
This is something that needs to be addressed both on the county level and on the state level because the federal government is not doing its job and what happens is with these TPS temporary status licenses that these people are given, they will run out. That time will expire and then who’s going to come and get them.
Are they checking to make sure they go home? No, nobody’s doing that. We all know that they’re going to stay here.
They will be illegal at that point. But by that, by that point, it’s already too late.
And so what we have to do is we have to have leaders in our local community that are willing to do the hard work of identifying the people who should not be in our community and then working with the state to get them out.
And I say working with the state because the federal government has abandoned us. They’re not going to do anything about it.
And so it’s our job as leaders now to step up.
Kayla Blakeslee
I hear you loud and clear saying that, Micah, and I appreciate you coming on the air and saying that so loud and clear because what I can’t figure out is why so many city, county and state leaders are afraid to come on the air with me and even talk about this topic.
I mean, I’ve been told so many times that I’m over sensationalizing the story, that I need to move on. I mean, why are our leaders right here in Indiana being so hush hush about this?
Micah Beckwith
Well, I think part of it is there’s the leftist narrative that will say, if you address this problem, you’re a racist.
I had a city councilman from Elkhart come after me. His name’s Aaron Mishler. And he’s a leftist Marxist, you know, he’s just typical Democrat in today’s culture.
And he started saying, he made innuendoes that I was part of the KKK. I was bringing back the KKK.
They always go to that place. And so when, if you’re not bold, if you don’t know who you are, and you’re not willing to stand up, you will be bullied into silence by the Left.
They’ll use that tired tactic, that ridiculous argument that somehow this is racist. No, it’s not racist. And also it’s unloving to not address this issue, because here’s what’s happening:
You will sacrifice your children and children’s children for the sake of the world because we are draining our resources. Our school resources, our hospital resources, our, our police and fire resources are all being drained by people who should not be here.
And so you are sacrificing the very people God has called us to take care of, and that’s our community.
Those are people that grow up here. Those are people that are born here. Those are people that come here legally and are a blessing to our society.
And we are just creating multiculturalism with this problem. Multiculturalism is a very bad thing. We do not want ‘multi’ cultures.
We want assimilation into the American way of life. And if you will not do that, then you do not belong here. And we are going to find you and we’re going to remove you.
Kayla Blakeslee
And you’re right. I am proof actually of what you’re saying, Micah, in terms of, I’ve been called every name in the book when it comes to me discussing this story and I can’t quite figure out how discussing a strain on infrastructure and resources is racist.
You might as well tell me the sky is purple. It rolls right off my back because I know what we’re talking about here. Micah, I am curious, are you seeing or hearing about this Haitian migrant influx in other towns around our state of Indiana?
Micah Beckwith
Oh yeah, it’s happening in my town. Uh, there’s been a lot of concern.
And again, the, um, I’m from Hamilton County from Noblesville and leadership is just kind of saying, well, it’s not really happening. Or they’ll say, well, it may be happening, but we don’t really know. And we don’t know what to do about it.
And then you have places like Seymour, Indiana, where it is happening and leaders are saying it’s happening and then the state isn’t doing anything about it.
So everybody’s at fault here. This is not just one, you know, local community or one person in state government. Nobody’s stepping up to the plate, but I really believe with our ticket, the Braun-Beckwith ticket, this will be one of our priorities.
We will figure out a solution. We will become a Texas, we’ll become a Florida. And if we have to, we’ll ship people to Martha’s Vineyard if we need to. But we are going to get the people who should not be here out of our communities because it is unloving if we do anything other than that.
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“But we are going to get the people who should not be here out of our communities because it is unloving if we do anything other than that.” Whose god is he talking about??? These folks are WORKING. What is his problem w/that? Are his community populations all scrambling for slaughterhouse jobs? No. Employers want workers. Just like a century ago when Europe was emptying & workers flooded the Midwest got jobs & helped build America. I don’t want Indiana to be another Texas or Florida!!
My god, stop this march to fascism.