Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith on Friday landed himself in hot water with supporters over social media posts about Haitian asylum-seekers.
Beckwith, a pastor at Life Church’s Noblesville campus, met with Haitian pastors on Thursday to talk about “faith and family.”
“Their people have endured earthquakes and violence, and now more than 40,000 are seeking asylum here in Indiana,” he wrote on X. “We spoke about barriers of language and culture while also discussing the power of faith and family.”
“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.
The backlash from fellow conservatives was swift.
X users swarmed to the comment section, accusing Beckwith of trying to bring 40,000 Haitian nationals to Indiana. Some called for his deportation to Haiti.
Conservative news figures from across the country amplified the post.
Beckwith backtracked, at first.
“Ultimately, advocating for firmness does not mean abandoning love,” he wrote in one reply. “I was letting these pastors know that they have a responsibility to care for their own community. It is their job to do that — it is not our job to fund them.”
He got direct.
“I am not advocating for us to have Haitians come to America or Indiana,” Beckwith wrote in another reply. “I am saying that if Haitians come to our state, they must do it legally, learn English, and assimilate to our culture.”
Then, he turned off the comments to his official X account and deleted his original post and replies. Another wave of commenters seethed.
Beckwith’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Critics flooded comments to his personal X account instead.
“This guy asked to come on my show for well over a year,” conservative talk show host Steve Deace wrote. “We finally booked him as a positive example of Christian conservative leadership to our audience. Had I known he advocated this, I would’ve never done so.”
“I’m not calling for them to come to the US… I’m saying that are already here because of the idiotic policies of the previous administration… which I condemn!” Beckwith replied.
He said the meeting was to implore the pastors to “step up and care for their own people because taxpayer resources are not for them.” He also directed them to encourage self-deportation for any congregants in Indiana illegally.
“I’ve been the most supportive statewide elected official of the Trump immigration policies in the entire state of Indiana and that has not changed,” Beckwith concluded.
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