When then president Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security attempted to end temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians in 2017, Gilbert Fortil had just arrived in Springfield, Ohio.
Fortil, from Gonaïves in northern Haiti, has spent the years since then working to make a new life in Springfield. He has opened a radio station to serve the growing Haitian community, bought and renovated abandoned properties, and been joined by thousands of other Haitians who have helped revive a once-struggling town in western Ohio.
