Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith faced immense backlash for appearing to support granting asylum to 40,000 Haitians. “Yesterday, I sat with Haitian pastors from Marion County. Their people have endured earthquakes and violence, and now more than 40,000 are seeking asylum here in Indiana. We spoke about barriers of language and culture while also discussing the power of faith and family,” Beckwith said. “What I saw was not a community asking for a handout, but people determined to work hard, raise their children to become contributors to the great Hoosier state, and assimilate to the American way of life,” he added. Yesterday, I sat with Haitian pastors from Marion County. Their people have endured earthquakes and violence, and now more than 40,000 are seeking asylum here in Indiana. We spoke about barriers of language and culture while also discussing the power of faith and family. What I… pic.twitter.com/SqlI3QJcu5 — Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith (@LGMicahBeckwith) September 5, 2025 Beckwith turned off the comments to his post. “Indiana’s Republican Lt. Governor shuts comments off after this post about 40,000 Haitians ‘seeking asylum’ in Indiana,” Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin said. Indiana’s Republican Lt. Governor shuts comments off after this post about 40,000 Haitians “seeking asylum” in Indiana. https://t.co/JfvGeAjCRy — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 6, 2025 Here’s some of the criticism the Republican politician faced: America is not a global refugee camp. https://t.co/Z1zMZfB7wL — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 6, 2025 Incredible that Trump was elected on a grassroots platform of "we don't want Haitians in America" and the GOP leadership of a deep red state has turned that into trying to settle even more Haitians in the Heartland https://t.co/QYbWCrxlsu — Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) September 6, 2025 It appears Indiana Republicans have learned nothing from Ohio. Don’t betray your constituents for a check from the Chamber of Commerce. https://t.co/w9IZUya86V — Gabe Guidarini (@GabeGuidarini) September 6, 2025 This is the REPUBLICAN Lt Governor of Indiana trying to settle FORTY THOUSAND ILLEGAL HAITIANS in Indiana. We simply cannot have these traitors in our party anymore. https://t.co/2mEX2T4PCu — john jackson (@pvtjokerus) September 5, 2025 40,000 in Indiana…Haiti is not at war. How low is the bar for ‘asylum’? Gangs? Natural disasters? That is not how asylum works. https://t.co/Em35jkvL19 — Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. (@naomirwolf) September 6, 2025 “If you know my stance on immigration, you should also know the sentiment behind this. I have said time and time again that our borders should be shut down, and we need the federal government to halt any more asylum seekers until we can get a handle on the current crisis. If people come in through the front door and legally enter the country with the intent to assimilate and raise their children as hardworking Americans, we should be open to helping them,” Beckwith wrote. “I am not advocating for us to have Haitians come to America or Indiana. I am saying that if Haitians come to our state, they must do it legally, learn English, and assimilate to our culture,” he added. If you know my stance on immigration, you should also know the sentiment behind this. I have said time and time again that our borders should be shut down, and we need the federal government to halt any more asylum seekers until we can get a handle on the current crisis. If… https://t.co/i37wj7kfoM — Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith (@LGMicahBeckwith) September 5, 2025 Haitian migrants in Ohio became a hot topic during the 2024 presidential election, with Trump saying he would revoke their Temporary Protected Status if elected. CNN wrote last year: Many Haitians came into the country under a Biden-Harris administration parole program that gives permission to enter to vetted participants with US sponsors. And many have “Temporary Protected Status,” as CNN has previously reported, which shields them from deportation and allows them to live and work in the country for a limited period of time. Some received that protection after the Biden-Harris administration expanded the number of Haitians eligible in June. Others have been living in the US with Temporary Protected Status since before the Biden-Harris administration. Trump, pressed in the Wednesday interview on what would happen if Haiti refused to receive them, said: “They will,” without providing additional details. “Well, they’re going to receive them, they’ll receive them. If I bring them back, they’re going to receive them,” Trump said. During the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security was aggressive in ending a number of temporary protected status designations that had been on the books, in some cases, for decades. A federal judge ruled this week to block the Trump administration from ending the Temporary Protected Status for over one million Venezuelan and Haitian nationals in the United States. Federal judge blocks Trump admin from ending TPS for 1.1 million Venezuelans, Haitianshttps://t.co/7KearvwV6u — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 7, 2025 More from The Post Millennial: According to the Associated Press, TPS protections apply to about 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. The ruling came from Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California, who said that ending the program was “unprecedented” and that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s actions violated the law. “This case arose from action taken post haste by the current DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, to revoke the legal status of Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders, sending them back to conditions that are so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel to their home countries,” Chen wrote. TPS for Venezuelans and Haitians was granted under the Biden administration, which cited ongoing crises making return unsafe. The program allows nationals from countries in conflict, or facing public health or humanitarian disasters, to remain in the US temporarily. “For decades, the TPS program has been abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program. Its use has been all the more dangerous, given the millions of unvetted illegal aliens the Biden Administration let into this country,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News.