The impact of the loss of temporary protected status in Indiana.

A call to subpoena voters will not move forward.

And a mass deportation rally comes to Fishers.

From the television studios at WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending July 31st, 2026.

Indiana Week and Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.

About 7000 Haitians in Indiana lost their ability to legally work and live in the US this week.

Samantha Horton reports.

Immigrant advocates say the change will negatively impact the state's workforce and the economy.

Haitians contribute about $30 million annually in state and local taxes, according to advocacy group FWD that economic impact is expected to drop as thousands lose their temporary protection status, or TPS, a ruling by the US Supreme Court in June allowed the Trump administration to terminate TPS for Haitians and Syrians.

Immigrant Welcome Center CEO Gurinder Kaur says Haitians work in agriculture, health care and hospitality.

The deliveries, the comforts that we are used to, the care that is being provided as various professional affiliations and the work that they do is going to be impacted.

Kaur says the effects on the workforce will be clearer in the coming months.

Will Indiana feel the impact of the loss of immigrant workers?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week and review panel.

Democrat Ann Delaney Republican Mike O'Brien.

Jon Schwantes is host of Indiana Lawmakers.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So Ann what type of impact do you think this move is going to have in Indiana?

It's going to have an impact.

I mean, these are these are not illegal immigrants.

I mean, these are people who are here legally working, paying taxes, doing jobs that many Americans don't want to do.

And it's certainly going to have an impact on the economy.

And from a humanitarian perspective, it's even worse.

We took them under these circumstances because they were living in hell holes, and they're going back to hell holes if they survive.

and it is just so reprehensible.

I mean, the Christian nationalist Republicans say they're Christian.

They love each other, but they hate anybody else who looks different.

And these people look different.

They worship some in some cases, different gods speak different languages and have a different skin color.

And so they want them out of the country.

These are contributing citizens who are paying taxes and doing jobs and helping people.

Okay.

I mean, there are a lot of them in the health care industry, which is always understaffed, and people are going to be at a loss for what to do to protect their loved ones in this circumstance.

But the Christian nationalist Republicans don't seem to give a darn.

So let them go, even though they're not illegal immigrants.

The logistics of this make may be difficult and very confusing to people you know in Indiana that now find themselves in a situation where, they, they don't know what to do.

So what type of advice should we have?

This is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

That is, we do not have an immigration plan in this country that looks like anybody designed it on purpose.

We have these fits and starts of targeting a population, getting the courts to get on board and and try to deport them.

but there's no thoughtfulness to that.

It's just whatever you can get away with.

and so ultimately, and we haven't even tried to have an immigration policy in this country that that is, but it's sort of locked down the border and deport all the illegals since 21 years once this George W Bush had won and Republicans are on board with that.

And then we lost in 2008 and took the hard, put the hard line on on illegals without ever recognizing there's a practical problem with that.

And the kind of government you'd have to build the size of the government that you would have to build in order to accomplish that goal is entirely anti-conservative.

It's it's it's it's so invasive and intrusive.

The in the private life, with no real consideration of what the what's real, what will the impact is going to be.

And so in this situation and I actually on this temporary status, the problem with that is that these aren't asylum seekers, they're on green cards.

They're on a path to citizenship.

They're in this limbo.

And now the rugs kind of got pulled out out from under them.

But it was never a program.

It was designed to be to allow you to be here permanently.

And so that from policy standpoint, I don't actually look at that, that, that, that immigration status and go, no, that's right.

I mean, they actually did make the right call.

but these people needed to be reclassified or had some, some, some pathway to another to a green card or, or asylum or contributing their paying taxes or contribute to the economy, members of the community, and so there's going to be a real human.

You're right.

I mean, real human impact of that.

But it's a failing, like all the way around on the on the system itself.

The system is broken.

But, you know, we you did some reporting out of Logansport, which has a very high number of Haitian, and some of them have successfully become citizens and been able to navigate the system.

but others are going to find themselves in a very difficult situation.

And a community like that could be a real risk.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, they've started their own businesses.

They work in a lot of the manufacturing facilities.

Some of them have applied for asylum, but they're kind of stuck in this holding pattern because they weren't sure what was happening with TPS.

So, you know, they can try the asylum route, but that's years more of waiting.

And so, yeah, I mean, look, I know that, it's a very controversial thing, but in the meantime, businesses and even the Indiana Chamber of Commerce told us, you know, they're very concerned.

They're watching how this is going to work out because their communities in which this is the only reason they have places like these jobs filled.

And so someone will have to do those jobs.

you know, also, Syrians were on this list and Indiana has a history with, Syrian refugees as well.

I know not nearly as many people from Syria here in the state.

But again, the message that this.

Well, I. Think we're conflating a lot of things under the broad heading immigration, the I word and everyone has touched on it thus far during this discussion.

These people are not illegals.

It's often, I know my I know I agree with what you're saying, but you use the term illegals three times in your conversation.

I was taking mental note, which is right for a lot of people.

These are not these are not illegals, right?

As an pointed out, they came here legally.

and to this point, they've been here in some cases 16 years legally.

And I'd like to think, you know, after 16 years, you tend to put down roots.

The other thing.

So that's the one distinction.

I mean, we're we sort of lump everybody together, when in fact, the policy of this white House was right, was to talk about criminals, you know, convicted criminals who were here illegally.

Then all of a sudden that was broadened.

Now it's essentially broadened again, for the sake of shorthand, for the discussion.

It is tough on it and it runs the risk, it seems to me, of creating not necessarily division, but some disagreement within even the Republican Party.

You see, Indiana certainly has a lot of, you mentioned Logansport has a large population.

Ohio probably has the largest concentration in the in the country, including right around Springfield, which is where the where the cats were all, I know if the cap population has recovered to this, to this date yet, but that was identified by by Donald Trump and JD Vance is sort of this cauldron of crazy behavior and conduct.

Never mind that local officials say this is the best thing that ever happened to us.

Never mind that Mike DeWine, who is as a Republican as you know, U.S.

senator now, governor, he's run for multiple offices, always is a Republican.

He says this is crazy, this policy that the white House has, it makes no sense.

It's going to hurt us economically.

It is going to hurt the health care industry.

It is going to hurt logistics, a lot of these in a disproportionate fashion.

I mean, there are a lot of people, sectors of the economy that immigrants are in, but those tend to be in fact, in meatpacking.

These are many, many cases, reasons why you have these concentrations in Logansport and Springfield, Ohio.

So it's it's it's not monolithic.

The Republican stance on this.

And I think we've seen that from our Republican representative here today.

There is ample There are new.

Yeah.

I mean, there are there are new.

I'll put you in the I'll put you in the Mike DeWine camp.

People who say, let's let's not just take.

Yeah, let's not just be The Indiana Recount Commission shot down an effort to subpoena voters, and questioned them about crossing over during the Republican primary in May.

As Ben Thorp reports, a candidate backed by President Donald Trump has argued that Democratic voters illegally pulled Republican ballots in order to keep her from winning.

The race in Senate District 23 has come down to just three votes, with incumbent Spencer Deery narrowly beating out Trump backed Paula Copenhaver.

Copenhaver's campaign has disputed hundreds of ballots and called for some voters to be subpoenaed, pointing to social media posts indicating they normally voted for Democrats.

Secretary of State Diego Morales led the vote against subpoenaing voters.

This is the right thing to do, you know, to, make sure that, we reject the motion to subpoena any voters.

Morales called for the state to close its primaries to resolve the issue.

The commission will review the disputed ballots and make a final determination in August.

So Mike did the commission make the right call here?

I think they did.

Yeah.

look, I mean, we test our party at the primary.

That's our system.

and we've never gone back.

and there have been high profile examples of, like, open campaigns to try to talk voters into crossing over to alternative never work, never works.

In 2000, eight was the biggest example when, when Rush Limbaugh ran a campaign for Republican voters across over in the Democrat primary because he came down to Indiana for for president, because this country was never going to elect Barack Obama.

That's right.

So that's the highest profile example of the not working.

Exactly.

But we've never been that punitive, in these laws.

I think there's been a presumption that voters have the right to one to privacy and two of, changed their mind, you know, and I don't vote all Republican.

And in Republican general elections, I don't vote Democrat.

But sometimes I under vote, for people that I know personally and I want to support that.

But I think the commission got it right.

and I think that would have set a terrible precedent.

It would have put another chilling effect on voting, too, if people thought you're going to get subpoenaed.

If I pulled the Democrat ballot last time, I want to pull a Republican run this time for any reason, like I, I support that candidate more.

I'm like, I want to participate in the race for governor.

and so I've changed my mind.

And now in the back of my head, I'm like, want me to get hauled in front of a judge to explain myself?

Or my private vote is to go to now become public, on what I did.

And we can't we just can't go down that road.

But I will say, Ted Nolting, the attorney on, on that side of it, that it was the best argument you had.

I mean, there's there's really very few options to go back into a recount and start, and, and there should be very few opportunities to go kill ballots that have already been cast.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, and that's all ending, though.

And Diego, saying, the, closed primaries is the way that the state should move forward.

There's a mechanism.

Now, if somebody wants to challenge when you ask for a Republican vote at the primary level, there's a mechanism for challenging it now.

So it's it's already there.

It didn't happen in this case.

And the idea that you could subpoena people to come in and say how you intend to vote in the fall is absolutely unconstitutional.

So it's clearly the right decision.

It's the only decision.

Chilling effect.

Oh my.

You know, the other thing is it's she's taken a page out of Trump's book.

Okay.

She lost.

Okay.

More people voted in favor of her opponent than her.

Okay.

That's that's the way it is.

But that can't be.

There has to be some nefarious plot out there somewhere that undermined her, because obviously she was anointed to that position and she didn't get it.

Can you imagine?

The voters said no, and that's what she should recognize.

That is a remarkable three votes.

And there still will be a counting of the votes.

In in McCluskeys race was, what, ten.

Ten so.

Many years ago.

And it went on for months.

Every vote counted.

The bloody eight.

They called it the bloody eight.

Never did for years.

It's yeah, it's incredibly close.

And so you do I mean I'm not surprised that somebody who is on the losing end of an election wants to exhaust every, run down every possible avenue of every recourse.

But Ann's point is good.

One she lost.

And I agree with everybody here going in and having a subpoena to depose or bring all, voters in front of a judge, to offer their testimony about why they saw fit to change parties.

People do change their minds.

Yeah.

I think that's a sign of wisdom.

Is is whether you're changing, you know, on a given issue or party affiliation or candidate.

We look at Donald Trump, who, if I'm not mistaken, has voted in more Democratic primaries in his lifetime before he is elected to challenge 2016 than he was, Lindsey Graham.

May he rest in peace was became one of the biggest, backers certainly of the president in the US Senate.

But go back to 2016.

He was the leading voice of the never Trump.

You know, talked about what?

Well, JD Vance was for that matter, too.

Yeah.

so people you don't have to look very far to find evidence that people change their opinions about individual candidates, about party platforms and about the issues.

And that's in their own country.

I would I would agree.

Not a question.

For us.

We do have to do secret ballots for a reason.

For a reason is all fallout from the redistricting, action that took place late last year.

I mean, it is incredible to think about everything that's happened.

some news today as well as Senate President Pro Tem before I get to that.

I just want to remind people the recount is not over.

Yeah, they're still challenging.

About 300.

They just flipped ballots.

So we'll have to see how that goes.

And there were two that were counted kind of late.

One in Tippecanoe, one one in Park.

So we don't know for sure for sure.

But yeah, the big news is that Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray came out today and said he will not seek that leadership post again.

He specifically said, look, I don't want to put people in harm's way like that.

Now they're being told, we're going to retaliate against you if you support him in a leadership vote, he doesn't want to put his colleagues in that position.

And so that's why he said he's not going to seek the leadership role.

And a call from the white.

House nationalists control the Republican Party in Indiana.

I mean, Trump had some.

Strong words for the his legacy.

And, you know, this is a multi-generational, you know, elected official father, his grandfather, he's an institutionalist.

First of all, he very much respects the institution and protecting that.

And that's what I feel is certainly one of the pillars of what he was doing when he opposed redistricting last year.

so it's kind of the last act of who Rod Bray is as a person.

Well, let.

A good citizen and ethical leader and made the right call to protect call.

Somebody who, as you say, cares about the institution.

And that's not what's going to happen from here on out.

And that's why I say the Christian nationalists and the ideologues are going to control it all.

And it's to his credit, I think, that he stepped down.

It's to the shame of the Republican Party that he had to do that.

And we will probably see, you know, the closed primaries, the Republican Party.

And so that would be a major topic as we're moving into the next cycle.

Those that say, I hate to see, Rod Bray go, his his family, I can't think of many Indiana families that have had the sterling record of public service that he and father and grandfather did at both the state level and the federal, level, and the case of his grandfather.

So it's, sad from that standpoint.

I mean, I understood.

Still being said.

He'll still be in the Senate and I and I, and I. Primary him, too.

I understand the notion of wanting to do not put people in harm's way, but it does create a bit of even for even if the intentions are good, it sort of takes people who are institutionalist to the sidelines, self-imposed trip to the sidelines, and creates that vacuum into which others could come.

That's right.

And that's what that's what has happened in both parties.

It's just as they've acted more extreme, more people.

And that kind of middle 40 are like, I don't get me out of here.

I don't deal with these people.

But you see that, that start that, that has started in a big way, certainly in DC.

But now in Indiana, it's it's we were kind of a late adopter to that, infiltrating the institutions and affecting how they behave.

Well.

And what you're seeing that's.

Carried ridiculously far when you when you have Governor Braun and Attorney General Rokita saying that they can declare laws unconstitutional, I mean, they don't even have respect for the law, never mind for the institution.

It's ridiculous.

And there's a quite a divide.

And now it is time for viewer feedback.

Every week we pose an unscientific online poll question.

This week's question Should Indiana move to close primaries in our elections?

But yes or no, the last question posed to viewers should the state pull more people off the childcare voucher waitlist, 52% saying yes and 48% saying no.

If you would like to take part in the poll, go to WFYI.org/IWIR and look for the poll.

A rally billed as the nation's first mass deportation rally is set for Fishers, Indiana, this Saturday.

Organizers say it's sold out and it's drawing a counterprotest.

Eric Weddle has more.

The group Save Heritage Indiana is hosting the event.

It's headlined by former U.S.

Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who oversaw President Trump's mass deportation campaign before retiring in March.

Bovino calls the rally an important first step.

There's a lot of opposition to that rally.

The first mass deportation rally ever held in the United States.

And hopefully, you know, hopefully everything goes off good there.

But that is perhaps, you know, everything starts with the spark.

Indiana's Republican Party supports the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.

This year, lawmakers passed a law requiring schools, local governments, police and sheriff's offices to comply with federal immigration enforcement.

Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Josh Lowry rejects that support.

He described the event as a, quote, modern day Klan rally.

The rally's exact location has not been made public.

So, Niki, why do you think Fishers, Indiana was picked for this?

First of its kind?

I don't think it's clear.

The group is.

I think they said, like, we have a lot of people up and like, north of the donut counties.

I don't think we really know.

we don't know anything about it, and I'm not sure.

I mean, they say it's the first mass deportation rally, but it's not public, so I don't even know what to call it.

They won't even give us an idea on attendance.

yesterday we were told they are giving exclusive rights for two media outlets to cover it, but they wouldn't tell us who.

so it's just, I don't know.

I guess we'll wait on Saturday and see what happens.

A lot of secrecy involved around this event, but not so much secret.

The counterprotest that's going to be going on in the.

Park starts and they.

Yeah, a lot of people.

Municipal.

Sounds like.

I think that will my guess is will be better attended and at least we do know where it starts.

Where it ends.

the times cover and you can go and see it to follow up on what Niki was saying.

I mean, I haven't looked at a dictionary, meaning of rally, but it kind of suggests that you're having some public event that is designed to gen up your, your supporters or encourage people to come to your side.

But when people can't see you trying to preach your message, I mean, and they say it's sold out, but there's a conference room down the hall from near the studio that has, what, 8 or 10 seats in it?

I could sell when my singing.

Well, maybe I can't sell out a tent.

Okay, my point being, if you and I'm not saying it's a ten seat conference room, maybe it's 20 seats, but I'm not putting a lot of stock in a sell out, all right?

Or that will have much of an impact.

Although we do have Republican leaders who will be at the event and others who will be giving video messages.

The governor has said that he would not be attending, or involved with this event.

what does that speak to, though?

Well, that's all of them saying no.

So even even prisoner video, including Jim Banks, you no shrinking violet on immigration policy.

Right.

So I mean, that tells you that tells you something about this group.

So he's saying, you know, anything?

I'm I'll be interested to see what the what the attendance, the message.

my guess is it's going to be quite extreme.

but but, I mean, I think it is it is telling that our mainstream elected officials aren't are like, get me out here.

Even the conservative one.

Well, yeah.

I mean, because it's it's it strikes people that it's really analogous to the Klu Klux Klan.

I mean, it really is.

You don't any longer say you're anti-black or you're anti Jewish people.

You're anti-Muslim.

No, no no no no, you're anti-immigrant.

And you get all of those together.

Love to to Lieutenant Governor Beckwith means anybody that looks, thinks and acts like him.

He loves anybody who's different.

He hates and he's okay with that.

He's okay with hate as a part of his, quote, Christian values.

It's frightening.

And I feel sorry for Fishers.

I don't want them to be to be remembered the way Marion, Indiana was remembered for the last lynching, but there's some risk associated with having it there.

So I hope the counter protest dwarfs the protest or the rally that's sold out.

We'll be watching two candidates running as Democrats for the same seat.

The Indianapolis Public School Board are facing opposition as they challengers to their eligibility.

Caroline Beck reports questions have arisen following a law that allows partisan school board elections.

A 2025 law allows school board candidates to affiliate with political parties.

Now, candidates Lindsey Cornett and Chris Bultman are both facing challenges because they filed to run as Democrats for the IPS district four seat.

But the Marion County Election Board has run into some confusion.

The challenges appear to be based on contradictory language found in a new state law and state election administration rules.

Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell noted her frustration with the new law during a Monday morning meeting.

Thank you, General Assembly.

because this seems clear as mud.

The county election board's next meeting to consider the challenges has not yet been set.

So Jon are other Indiana school districts are going to run into this.

Problem inevitable, I think is, is this, is the shakedown cruise, if you will, of this new law.

These things are going to arise because of the and what constitutes affiliation now, is it the to the last two primaries you voted in or the two that were held or the two that you voted in?

I mean, that comes down to that distinction.

And can a chair bless you and circumvent that process?

Well, that's up to the argument from the recount.

Committee, right?

Well, they're well, there also, I mean, you only have to be under state statute 18 to run for school, but on on election day you have to be 18.

And I went and looked and recently just the last cycle, we had someone from Salem who was just turned 20 under, if you want to say that person were running as the party affiliation, he and I believe was he, could not have done so because unless you got the blessing of the the county party chair, because you haven't had a. Record from anybody else.

But you can't have it.

Yeah.

I mean, if you don't have a track, it really.

It's the right.

That's the primary, is that.

The problem with the rule.

Is the law is poorly drafted.

I mean, I never mind the issue of whether we should have partisan elections that the law is very poorly drafted.

You can get you can just simply say I'm a Democrat, okay.

And in Hamilton County, everyone's going to say there won't.

Maybe not after the next election, but right now they're going to say there are Republicans.

And in Marion they're going to say they're Democrats.

It's ridiculous.

Well, that's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Ann Delaney Republican.

Mike O'Brien, Jon Schwantes host of Indiana Lawmakers.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief at Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Week in Review's, podcast and episodes at WFYI.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.