The United States has significantly increased deportations to Haiti following the termination of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, impacting over 160 individuals since the Trump administration’s victory in the legal battle. The U.S. government currently bans U.S. commercial flights to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, due to escalating gang violence, a situation that has already displaced nearly 1.5 million people across the nation. The plane landed in Cap-Haitien, the northern city, because the main international airport is considered too dangerous, and the current ban on U.S. flights through the capital has been in place since early September. The deportees, predominantly TPS holders and those serving prison sentences, were clad in white, with many covering their faces to avoid potential targeting by gangs controlling an estimated 70% of Cap-Haitien’s urban area and surrounding swaths of land. The U.S. government currently has a maximum of 65 dollars and a drink to offer to the deportees, and the process continues until all migrants return home. Delva, director general of Haiti’s National Office of Migration, stated that the Haitian state does not ask for them to be sent back; our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. The government intends to reunite some of the deportees with their relatives in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, where their mother and father live. Several deportees, notably one who arrived from the Dominican Republic, were born in Haiti, and others planned to travel to Haiti’s southern region, a journey fraught with danger due to gang control of the main routes leading to that area and known for random gunfire. Others are going to Haiti’s western region, as several deportees have stated their intention to go to Haiti’s western region, where the government has stated that it will attempt to facilitate reunions with the Haitian and Dominican populations.
Immigration officials in Haiti offered deportees a maximum of $65 and something to drink and eat. The government has noted that there is one migrant who knows nothing about Haiti, who said he was coming from the Dominican Republic, where he was born, and that the government intends to attempt to reunify him with any potential relatives in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, where his mother and father live. The government has also arrested a popular Haitian pastor at a gas station in Springfield, Ohio, and another Haitian man who was with him, a move that has drawn criticism from faith-based groups and has been termed a “mistake” by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. The pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, was held by immigration authorities in Ohio, and ICE has been a heavy presence in Springfield, a city of about 60,000 people that gained attention when President Trump and Vice President JD Vance repeated false claims during the 2024 campaign that Haitian residents there ate dogs. The U.S. Supreme Court recently lifted an order preventing deportations of Haitians, affecting approximately 1 million people from over a dozen countries. The cases went back to the lower courts, but by late July, the government had not extended work permits for Haitians.
Activists have warned that Haiti is currently too dangerous and doesn’t have enough resources to help those being deported to a country of nearly 12 million people, of which more than half need humanitarian assistance because of surging gang violence and deepening poverty, hunger, and violence. Gang violence has already displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, where more than 3,100 people were killed from January to June and another 1,189 injured, according to U.N. statistics. One deportee briefly spoke to The Associated Press as he arrived in Cap-Haitien. He identified himself as Jean Diane Louis and said he left Haiti when he was 5 years old. He said his family lives in New York City and that he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for an unspecified crime he asserted he did not commit. “Then ICE came and took me without questioning me,” Louis said. “They just sent me here.” As gang violence persists, Haitian migrants in the U.S. continue to be arrested and deported. On Thursday, U.S. authorities arrested a popular Haitian pastor at a gas station in Springfield, Ohio, according to Springfield G92, a faith-based group supporting Haitian immigrants. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a second Haitian man who was with him, a move that has drawn criticism from faith-based groups and has been termed a “mistake” by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. The pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, was being held by immigration authorities in Ohio, and ICE has been a heavy presence in recent days in Springfield, a city of about 60,000 people that gained attention when President Trump and Vice President JD Vance repeated false claims during the 2024 campaign that Haitian residents there ate dogs. Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told CBS News last month that the Trump administration’s plan to deport them was a “mistake” that could harm the state’s economy and put the deportees at risk.
Viles Dorsainvil, who runs a support center for Haitians in Springfield, told CBS News in late July, “We’ve been praying for the best, but now we are facing the worst.”; He said he fears “it will be a nightmare for us.” Haiti is not ready to receive this number of migrants who were in the TPS program, and the government is working to address the situation through humanitarian aid and resettlement efforts. The group has decried the deportations, calling them a “grave error.” The U.S. had conducted about one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023, according to Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor, which tracks flight data. The group noted that more than 140,000 Haitians have been deported from neighboring countries, including the Dominican Republic, in the first half of the year alone.”
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Source: CBS News
