US sends first TPS deportees to Haiti amid gang violence

The United States has deported more than 160 Haitians to their homeland for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for roughly 350,000 Haitians. The flight landed Thursday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, chosen because the main international airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous due to rampant gang violence. Washington has banned U.S. commercial flights to the capital through early September.

Deportees, dressed in white and many covering their faces, were filmed by journalists as they arrived. Most declined to speak, fearing reprisals from gangs that control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and large areas beyond. The group included both TPS holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences, according to Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti's National Office of Migration.

"It is not the Haitian state that asks for them to be sent back," Delva said. "Our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. We welcome them with the aim of accompanying them to their home." He noted that some deportees were not born in Haiti, though they are of Haitian descent. One man, born in the Dominican Republic, said he knew nothing about Haiti; officials plan to reunite him with relatives there.

Several deportees intend to travel to Haiti's southern region, a perilous journey because gangs control main routes and are known to fire on vehicles. Others head to the western region. Haiti's immigration office offered each deportee up to $65, plus food and drink. Those unable to reach home immediately will be housed in secure spaces until they can continue, Delva said.

Activists warn that Haiti is too dangerous and lacks resources to absorb returnees. Gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people, and more than 3,100 were killed from January to June, according to U.N. statistics. Haiti's Group Supporting Refugees and Returnees decried the deportations, saying the country is not ready to receive such numbers and that no adequate government measures exist. The group noted that over 140,000 Haitians have already been deported from neighboring countries in the first half of the year.

One deportee, Jean Diane Louis, who left Haiti at age five and whose family lives in New York City, said he was sentenced to 19 years for a crime he did not commit. "Then ICE came and took me without questioning me," he said. "They just sent me here."

Separately, U.S. authorities arrested a popular Haitian pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, at a gas station in Springfield, Ohio, along with another Haitian man, according to Springfield G92, a faith-based group. The arrests come amid heightened ICE presence in the city, which gained attention after President Trump falsely claimed during his 2024 campaign that Haitian residents ate dogs.

The U.S. had conducted about one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023, according to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor. Recent flights have originated in Alexandria, Louisiana, with a stop in Miami before landing at Cap-Haitien International Airport.