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)

BEIRUT (AP) — Attacks intensified Friday between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah ahead of direct talks between the Lebanese government and Israel set to begin next week.

The talks are set to begin Tuesday in Washington and will be mediated by U.S. diplomats, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's office said in a statement, citing the outcome of a call Friday among Israeli, Lebanese and U.S. ambassadors. The statement reiterated Beirut's position that the talks be held under a ceasefire or truce.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter later issued a statement describing next Tuesday's talks as “formal peace negotiations," but said a ceasefire was not on the agenda, in a stark contradiction to Aoun's remarks.

“Israel refused to discuss a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which continues to attack Israel and is the main obstacle to peace between the two countries,” the statement read.

At least 13 members of Lebanon's State Security forces were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Friday, while Hezbollah claimed an attack targeting a naval base in the Israeli port city of Ashdod some 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the border.

Israel launched strikes across several towns in southern Lebanon, including one on a government building in the southern city of Nabatieh that killed the government security personnel. Hezbollah claimed 31 other attacks on northern Israel and on Israeli ground troops that have invaded southern Lebanon.

Israel launched its latest aerial campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran, its key ally and patron, on March 2.

At least 1,953 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the Health Ministry. At least 303 were killed in a rapid series of 100 strikes that hit the country — including multiple areas in dense residential and commercial areas in central Beirut — in 10 minutes on Wednesday, the bloodiest day in the latest war between the two sides. Civil Defense first responders are still searching for bodies trapped under the rubble in the Lebanese capital.

Meanwhile, officials at Beirut's main government-run hospital on the southern edge of the capital fear it could be in the line of fire after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the surrounding suburbs, including the busy neighborhood of Jnah where the hospital is located. Israel has launched attacks in Jnah, both with and without warning.

The World Health Organization has since called for the Rafik Hariri University Hospital to be spared from attacks and not to evacuate, and WHO officials said Friday that they received assurances that it would not be struck. The hospital has not evacuated, though staff are fearful, as getting to work now requires them to drive on roads that can be struck at any time says Dr. Mohammad Cheaito, who heads the emergency department.

“The entire zone around the hospital was threatened and deemed dangerous,” he told The Associated Press. “But at the end of the day, we have a humanitarian duty.”

Lebanon's authorities have not yet commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement on Thursday of the decision to go ahead with talks. Netanyahu said the talks would revolve around disarming Hezbollah and establishing “peaceful relations” between the two countries.

A Lebanese official in government familiar with the developments said that a halt in the fighting is a critical condition for the country to engage in direct talks with Israel, similar to the one between the U.S. and Iran. It has yet to appoint a representative for negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Aoun had initially proposed the direct talks early on in the war on similar terms, at the time hoping for Israel to stop an escalation in airstrikes and to not invade the country. At the time, with only the backing of France, that failed.

On Wednesday, the U.S. and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire in the war that began on Feb. 28. It included Lebanon and other countries impacted in the wider regional conflict, mediator Pakistan announced. However, Israel — and later the United States — denied this. They want to separate the diplomatic tracks of the two wars.

Hezbollah considers Israel's attacks on Lebanon to be a violation of the ceasefire, while Beirut, in a bid to disarm Hezbollah and assert its full sovereignty over the country, says it wants to be included in talks related to Lebanon.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Kassem in a statement broadcast Thursday did not directly mention the prospect of Israel-Lebanon talks, but called on the Lebanese government to “stop giving free concessions” to Israel.

Dozens of supporters of the Iran-backed group protested outside of the Lebanese prime minister's office in central Beirut. They see the scheduled direct talks as a surrender to Israel, which says its troops will stay in the country indefinitely.

“Our blood has been spilled on this land, and our state is conspiring against us,” said protester Hassan Shuaib. “Our state wants to kill us; our state wants to strip us of our weapons.”

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Associated Press producer Malak Harb and video journalist Fadi Tawil in Beirut, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

A Hezbollah supporter shouts slogans during a protest against the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in front the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Hezbollah supporters shout slogans during a protest against the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in front the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Protesters wave Hezbollah and Iran's flags during a protest against the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in front the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A Hezbollah supporter waves a flag with the portrait of the late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a protest against the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in front the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)