By Leslie Bonilla Muniz
Indiana Capital Chronicle
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.
His office told the Capital Chronicle that immigration was a small part of the discussion, and that Beckwith supports the end of temporary protected status for Haiti. In comments on X, he also said he directed the pastors to encourage self-deportation for any congregants in Indiana illegally.
But 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.”
And 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.
“I believe the post was widely misconstrued,” Beckwith told the Capital Chronicle via a spokesperson. “The original post wasn’t clear, and words were getting misconstrued, therefore, we deleted the post.”
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.
“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,” he concluded.
Senior Reporter Casey Smith contributed.
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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.
