By Gerard Maxineau and Danica Coto
(Source: inkl)
The United States deported more than 160 people to Cap-Haïtien, Haiti Thursday, marking the first flight since the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians was finalized by federal courts.
The deportation flight was forced to land in northern Haiti rather than the capital of Port-au-Prince due to safety concerns and a U.S. ban on commercial flights to the capital, where gang warfare remains rampant.
Haitian authorities and advocacy groups strongly criticized the expulsions, emphasizing that the country lacks the infrastructure and security to support returnees amid widespread gang violence, poverty, and the displacement of 1.5 million residents.
The returnees, former Temporary Protected Status recipients and people who served prison sentences, faced immediate safety risks, with many expressing intense fear of criminal gangs controlling key transit corridors across the country.
Amid ongoing immigration enforcement, U.S. officials detained prominent Haitian pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien and another Haitian national in Springfield, Ohio, a community that drew national focus after Donald Trump made false allegations about Haitian residents during his 2024 campaign.
