Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday pushed back against the Trump administration’s decision to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Haitian immigrants.

During an interview with CBS News, DeWine expressed concerns about Haitians being sent back to their country. “Haiti is hell today,” he said. “So you'd be sending people back, literally back, back to hell. Very few of these Haitians will voluntarily go back to Haiti. If they have to leave, they'll go someplace else. They want to work, they want to support their family, they don't want to go back to Haiti.”

The governor also pointed out that the federal government urged U.S. citizens not to travel to Haiti. “You cannot fly in there. And the reason you can't fly in there is because the gangs shoot at the planes. So no one can even fly in there. The situation is really horrible,” he added.

This is a dysfunctional government. This is dysfunctional police. This is a country that's in virtual chaos. You see horrible tragedies that occur there every single day. Innocent people, innocent children being shot. They get caught in the crossfire of one gang trying to fight it out with another gang. There's no semblance of government there at all.

When asked whether he is concerned that Haitians might be killed if they are deported back to their country, DeWine answered, “Well, all the Haitians who I have talked to and I've heard other things that they have said, no one's going to go back to Haiti. If they have any choice. They're going to go somewhere else.”

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The host pointed out that “typically members of your party do not disagree with President Trump on many issues, but especially on immigration.”

“I think history tells us that this country was built, uh, with immigrants,” DeWine replied. “My family came here in the 1840s escaping the famine in Ireland. And my great-great-grandfather came to Yellow Springs and worked on the railroad, building the railroad at the time. There's always been a blend of people who are native to Ohio, have been here for generations, but also people who, who come in. I think that this is a great opportunity, frankly, for President Trump.”

He continued, saying Trump “has done a phenomenal job in taking care of a huge problem” at the southern border. “I think that the president has the opportunity to turn this, and to say, ‘look, it's now time. We've got our border sealed. It's now time to have a discussion with the Congress and the American people.’”

The Haitian immigrants in Ohio became a controversy amid a large influx of Haitians who migrated to Springfield under the TPS program. Rumors that these individuals were eating neighbors’ cats and dogs circulated on social media. 

Haitians were given Temporary Protected Status after a massive earthquake hit Haiti in 2010. The administration’s decision to end the program met with a fierce backlash and legal challenges. But the Supreme Court ruled in June that the White House could move forward with terminating the program, which affects over 300,000 individuals across the country. 

“As I have stated in the past, the policy to remove these individuals from this country is a mistake,” DeWine said at the time. 

He added, “As a result of today’s ruling, the over 10,000 Haitians who have been living in Ohio (mostly in the Springfield area) legally through TPS will now be here illegally and will be subject to immediate deportation. This also means that while these Haitians were working and contributing to our community and economy yesterday, today it is now illegal to employ them.”