2 Ohio pastors emerge as faithful allies for Haitian migrants during Trump's crackdown

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — One grew up in rural Haiti amid the poverty and violence of his beautiful but troubled Caribbean nation. The other grew up in Michigan as a self-described “blue-collar farm kid” from Middle America.

Both became pastors in Springfield, Ohio. Both share a goal inspired by their faith: supporting the city’s Haitian migrants who fear deportation under President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.

Reginald Silencieux, pastor of the First Haitian Evangelical Church, and Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church, share a common cause — and a mutual respect for one another. They both stood up for Haitians when Trump falsely accused Springfield’s Haitian migrants of eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs in 2024.

They offered them shelter in their churches and invited community members to join in prayer and peaceful protest of the false rumors that exacerbated anti-immigrant fears.

In the weeks after Trump’s comments, schools, government buildings and the homes of elected officials received dozens of bomb threats. Ruby and Silencieux were targeted, too. Still, they persevered.

They’ve held trainings to document and protest potential immigration enforcement raids, provided legal aid and food, and continued offering worship services in Creole and English-language classes.

And while they’ve prayed for Trump, they’ve demanded an extension of the Temporary Protection Status program that has allowed thousands of Haitians to legally arrive in Springfield in recent years, escaping unrest and  gang violence  in their homeland.

“Both of them have been great leaders for the community,” said Viles Dorsainvil, who has worked closely with both pastors as executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield.

He calls Ruby a champion of migrants, even putting his life at risk to support and welcome them.

He’s grateful to Silencieux for hosting the Haitian community center in his church since 2021 and inviting immigration attorneys to meet with congregants after services.

“He prays for them; he’s fasting with them; he’s giving them spiritual advice,” Dorsainvil said.

Silencieux grew up in a Christian family, loving Jesus and wanting to serve God — just not as a pastor. Instead, he became an attorney.

But by his mid-twenties, he was preaching part-time and eventually moved to Port-au-Prince where he pastored several churches in the gang-controlled capital city.

“Life in Haiti was not easy. But it shaped my character,” Silencieux said. “It taught me perseverance, responsibility and the importance of community.”

It also prepared him for his next challenge.

In 2021, he felt called to move to Springfield, where Haitian immigrants were helping meet rising labor demands for the city’s growing manufacturing industry. He didn’t know English and he left behind his wife and children, who still live in Haiti.

Since then, he has been helping some of the thousands of Haitians who legally moved to Springfield in recent years under the TPS program. The U.S. initially gave TPS to Haitians following a devastating earthquake in 2010 and extended it several times since. But the Trump administration has pushed to end that status, saying conditions in Haiti have improved.

A federal judge recently ruled to keep the protection temporarily in place. But uncertainty and fear continue in Springfield.

After her ruling, the judge received death threats. Bomb threats closed schools, offices and businesses in Springfield.

Silencieux feels powerless at times, but he reminds the community — and himself — to keep faith.

“As a pastor, I don’t have any possibility to protect them,” he said. “Faith helps me to help the community.”

At a recent Sunday service, he recommended that his congregants stay home as much as possible in case of immigration raids. He offered a prayer for Trump and the Haitian community.

“The president is our president. He can take decisions. But he is limited,” he said. “God is unlimited.”

Ruby grew up in a Baptist family in rural Michigan and spent most of his life identifying as an evangelical and a Republican. When he moved to Springfield — and for years after — he knew no Haitians.

But tensions flared in 2023 after a boy was killed and dozens injured when a Haitian immigrant driver  hit a school bus.

From home, Ruby tuned into a live city council meeting discussing the crash.

“I was hearing one ugly racist statement after another,” he said, recalling how he drove immediately to the meeting to speak out.

“All I said was, ’We need to remember that there are advantages of having immigrants come into our community; they’re good people.’ And I immediately became the friend of Haitians in town and the enemy of anti-immigrant people in town.”

After Trump’s derogatory comments in 2024, Ruby invited Springfield’s Haitians to worship at his church. He encouraged his congregation to hand out cards around Springfield with a supportive message for Haitians. In Creole and English, it read: “I’m glad you are here. Christ loves you and so do I.”

Ruby said God began preparing him for this moment 15 years ago. At the time, he was vice president of student life at Cedarville University, a Baptist college near Dayton, Ohio, and he organized a trip with students to trace the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The group visited the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where in 1963 four Black girls were killed when a bomb planted by Ku Klux Klan members exploded during a Sunday service.

They also visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, where Ruby read King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The letter was directed at Alabama clergy who had asked King to delay civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham.

“I didn’t know that was a letter addressed to pastors who had failed to stand because they wanted to be safe,” Ruby said.

“I made a commitment to myself that I wouldn’t do that; that if there were an opportunity for me to use my voice to help someone who was being oppressed, that I wouldn’t be silent.”

He organized a national conference of Christian colleges, hoping students could return to their campuses inspired to launch organizations focused on serving immigrants.

His work for migrants continued when he became pastor in 2015.

Working with faith leaders, he founded G92, an immigrant advocacy group named after the Hebrew word “ger,” meaning stranger or foreigner, which appears 92 times in the Old Testament.

Today, he takes pride that Springfield’s resistance to Trump’s immigration crackdown is faith-based.

“This is definitely a faith-led movement,” he said. “God loves immigrants and part of demonstrating that you’re one of God’s people is taking care of immigrants.”

He has been targeted with threats and slanderous comments. But he remains undaunted.

“I’ve never lost a moment of sleep over worrying about someone harming me,” he said. “I believe God will protect me.”

On Feb. 2, he helped put on an event where hundreds packed a church to sing and pray in support of Haitians. So many people turned up that a fire marshal asked scores to leave because the church had exceeded its capacity.

“Outside beautiful events with my family, it was the most beautiful day of my life,” Ruby said.

With the TPS program’s uncertain future, Ruby remains worried about the fate of Haitian migrants in Springfield. But he’s also hopeful.

“I think God’s going to bless our city for doing the right thing.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Rev. Reginald Silencieux, right, leads a worship service at the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Feb. 1, 2026, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, file)

FILE - Carl Ruby, pastor at Central Christian Church, hugs Lindsay Aime during service, on Sept. 15, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

FILE - Faith leaders from across the United States sing together as a sign of support for Haitian migrants fearing the end of their Temporary Protected Status in the U.S., at an event held at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Springfield, Ohio, on Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, file)

FILE - Jean-Michel Gisnel cries out while praying with other congregants at the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Jan. 26, 2025, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, file)

FILE - Members of the Haitian community, from left, Lindsay Aime, James Fleurijean, Rose-Thamar Joseph, Harold Herard, and Viles Dorsainvil, stand for worship with Carl Ruby, pastor at Central Christian Church, in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, file)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Two teenage suspects killed three men in a shooting at a San Diego mosque Monday before killing themselves a few blocks away, authorities said. Police Chief Scott Wahl said a security guard at the Islamic Center of San Diego was among those killed and that the case is being investigated as a hate crime.

About two hours before the attack, the mother of one of the suspects called police to report that her son was missing, Wahl told a news conference. She feared he might be suicidal, and she eventually realized that several of her weapons were missing, along with her vehicle.

The case became even more urgent when police learned that he was dressed in camouflage and that he was in the company of an acquaintance, and officers began using whatever technology they had available to locate the teens, including automated license plate readers.

Wahl said that’s when police began getting reports of a shooting.

The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego County, according to its website. It's about 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of downtown San Diego.

Here is the Latest:

There had been no specific threat made against the Islamic Center of San Diego, but San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said investigators were aware of “generalized hate rhetoric” in the case and are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

Wahl noted that the mother of one of the suspects found a note he left behind, but the chief declined to disclose its contents.

Wahl says that about two hours before the attack, the mother of one of the suspects called police to report that her son was missing.

Wahl told a news conference the she feared he might be suicidal, and she eventually realized that several of her weapons were missing, along with her vehicle.

The case became even more urgent when police learned that he was dressed in camouflage and that he was in the company of an acquaintance, and officers began using whatever technology they had available to locate the teens, including automated license plate readers.

Wahl said that’s when police began getting reports of a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego. Responding officers found the three victims at the mosque and the two teens dead of apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a vehicle nearby.

That’s according to Sharp Memorial Hospital spokesperson Erica Carlson.

Carlson says the hospital did not expect to receive additional patients but was staying in contact with the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services.

The hospital declined to provide additional details.

That’s according to the center’s website.

Aerial TV footage showed more than a dozen children holding hands and being walked out of the parking lot of the center as it was surrounded by scores of police vehicles.

Parents were directed to a nearby area to retrieve their children.

The white mosque is in a neighborhood of homes, apartments and strip malls with Middle Eastern restaurants and markets.

“All of the kids are safe,” Wahl said, appearing emotional. “Our hearts go out to the families that are in this moment being notified of what has happened to their loved ones.”

Imam Taha Hassane also said at a news conference that “all the places of worship in our beautiful city should always be protected.”

Tazheen Nizam of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in San Diego says that “no one should ever fear for their safety while attending prayers or studying at an elementary school.”

Nizam says in a statement that CAIR is “working to learn more about this incident and we encourage everyone to keep this community in your prayers.”

That’s according to Chief Wahl.

Wahl says that as officers responded to the mosque, they also fielded reports of gunfire a few blocks away, where a landscaper was shot at but was uninjured.

He says the suspects were found dead in a vehicle stopped in the middle of a road nearby.

Imam Taha Hassane says it also works to build relations in the community.

He told a news conference that a group of non-Muslims had been touring the mosque earlier Monday to learn about the Muslim faith.

That’s according to San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl.

Chief Scott Wahl says both suspects are believed to be teens and that the case is considered to be a hate crime.

“We are grateful to the first responders on the scene working to protect the community and urge everyone to follow guidance from local authorities,” his office posted on the social platform X.

Children hold hand as they walk near the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People carry weapons at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A woman watches from a distance at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Two men embrace at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Police stage at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Police stage at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A body is covered with a tarp at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

People stand behind police tape at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A sheriff's deputy stages at the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday, May 18, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)