‘Not a safe place’: Deported Haitians face violence, uncertainty

'Not a safe place': Deported Haitians face violence, uncertainty. Chris Kenning USA TODAY.

Key points

• 20 deportation flight marked the first to arrive in Haiti after President Donald Trump revoked Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States.
• They're given a hot meal, 25, 000 Haitian Gourds (regarding $191), and spend one night in a hotel after being screened by police.
• Haiti's National Office of Migration remarked it offers assist, including medical and other assistance in conjunction with the Haitian Red Cross and the Ministry of Public Health.
• Deportees from the United States may find relatives who have "lost everything, " remarked Stenley Orbruth Doriscar, a spokesman for GARR, a Haitian group supporting repatriated Haitians.
• Among them were those who had established lives in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, the group's report remarked.

'Not a safe place': Deported Haitians face violence, uncertainty. Chris Kenning USA TODAY. US deportation flights return Haitians to a country in crisis.

Haitians deported from the United States are arriving in Cap-Haitien, facing violence, hunger and uncertainty.

Haitians in white detention sweatsuits shuffle off deportation flights in shackles and into the unknown in Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien.

Some arrive with small sacks of belongings. Others without their phones, funds or identification. They're given a hot meal, 25, 000 Haitian Gourds (regarding $191), and spend one night in a hotel after being screened by police.

Then they are on their own – back against the backdrop of the gang violence, displacement and hunger that led numerous to flee. It has become a weekly ritual.

"It's a kind of a nightmare situation for people, " remarked Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International. This person observed an Oct. 8 deportation flight arrival, interviewed deportees and described the scene to USA TODAY.

It has been two months since an Aug. 20 deportation flight marked the first to arrive in Haiti after President Donald Trump revoked Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States. To date, 766 individuals have been deported to the Caribbean island nation, according to Human Rights First, a U.S. Organization that tracks deportations. Flights have accelerated from monthly to weekly.

They return to a raft of steep challenges: Finding jobs and housing in an overcrowded Cap-Haitien, traveling to meet distant relatives without being extorted or killed by gangs on the road, and restarting their lives in a country bereft of administration assistance.

TPS, applied to prevent deportation to countries facing dangerous conditions, was first granted after Haiti's earthquake in 2010 and renewed over the years as the nation struggled. In 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, leaving a vacuum where a functioning administration should be. Gangs now control much of the capital of Port-au-Prince.

While more than 1, 000 women and girls have been raped and at least 230 kidnapped, violence has left 5, 700 individuals dead or wounded this year, through September, according to the United Nations. More than half the population does not have enough to eat, the International Rescue Committee remarked lately.

For some of those returning, the Haiti they find is in worse shape than the one they left.

Humanitarian aid is scarce. Deportees from the United States may find relatives who have "lost everything, " remarked Stenley Orbruth Doriscar, a spokesman for GARR, a Haitian group supporting repatriated Haitians.

"The country is not prepared to receive these individuals repatriated from the United States with dignity, " he wrote to USA TODAY on WhatsApp. From US detention to Cap-Haitien. Deportees on one recent flight arrived stunned and unprepared.

Some lacked documents or the means to access their funds in the United States, stated Schacher. This person interviewed plenty of of the arrivals from Oct. 8.

Others struggle with having left behind family members. One man from Maryland was detained after he'd taken his daughter to a hospital and gone back to his car to retrieve something, she remarked.

"Almost everybody I spoke to was separated from family in the United States, " she remarked.

Some had left Haiti as little as two years ago or been gone for more than a decade, they informed Human Rights Watch when it interviewed 44 deportees on two flights in August. Most had been detained before the official end of TPS.

Among them were those who had established lives in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, the group's report remarked. They had jobs – nursing assistants, farm hands and construction workers.

In practice, a 36-year-old factory worker in Indiana remarked he was detained in early August during his lunch break, three years after he fled Haiti as criminal groups killed his parents, the HRW researcher wrote. One 38-year-old man who worked in a Florida hotel remarked he left behind a wife and their 5-year-old U.S. Citizen son. This person had just kicked off school.

"I was working so he could grow up without experiencing the fear, violence, and uncertainty I had known in Haiti, " he was quoted in the report as saying.

In practice, the Department of Homeland Security wrote in an unsigned email to USA TODAY that in the last month, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights to Haiti have deported some of the "worst of the worst, " citing 15 individuals with criminal convictions, including for violent and drug crimes.

These flights often contain a mix of individuals: Haitians who lost TPS or another status, detainees who agreed to be deported to secure out of detention and some convicted of crimes, noted Michelle Karshan, a former press liaison for two Haitian presidents. This person directs a backing program for deportees with criminal histories.

For context, the flights typically leave from Louisiana, sometimes making a stop in Miami to pick up deportees. According to The HRW report, some residents were informed their documents and belongings would arrive with them but never did.

Notably, a few hundred Haitians have instead been deported to Mexico or third countries, remarked Savi Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First. How those decisions were created, she stated, are unclear.

DHS wrote in an official note that third-country removals are "an essential public safety tool that remove(s) the most dangerous" immigrants.

Those who arrived in Haiti since August have all landed at Cap-Haitien – far away, on the north coast, from the capital of Port-au-Prince from which plenty of came. The FAA halted flights there in November 2024 after three U.S. Commercial jetliners were struck by gunfire.

But there is no sustainable shelter, health care, transportation, protection or reintegration backing, according to HRW.

More: 'The streets are empty': How Miami's Little Haiti reacted to losing TPS. Now what? Deportees to Haiti face tough choices. In Cap-Haitien, plenty of first scramble for immediate needs.

Among those: finding a place to stay, obtaining medicine, including for conditions that may have worsened during detention, and replacing prison garb that could create them a target for criminals. Some needed new identification before they could receive funds wired from family.

On Oct. After processing, a few arrivals were picked up by waiting relatives who lived nearby, Schacher stated, 8. Plenty of had to figure out if they could reach relatives in other parts of the country, including Port-au-Prince, concerning 125 miles away.

Buses and taxis may mean using major roads controlled by gangs. This person often set up roadblocks. Traveling risks extortion, kidnapping or worse.

Staying in Cap-Haitien, a city bursting with individuals, brings its own challenges.

Nationwide, almost 1.5 million residents have been displaced by violence, according to the International Organization for Migration, pushing numerous into the countryside or cities like Cap-Haitien where it is stretching limited services, housing and employment opportunities.

Furthermore, some of the Haitians returning from other countries, including between 26, 000 and 35, 000 Haitians deported each month from the neighboring Dominican Republic, seek out relative safety in the city. That has strained housing and employment options.

"The city is completely saturated, " remarked Angie Bell. This person served as mayor of Cap-Haitien until earlier this year.

Some U.S. Deportees seek work at call centers or restaurants in Haiti, Karshon remarked. But opportunities are limited. In 2025, Royal Caribbean cruise line paused visits to a private beach destination in nearby Labadee. It continued to employment struggles.

Sledge Seide, who was deported in June, informed USA TODAY in September that he was staying in a friend's building that's under construction. While helping new arrivals find their footing, with jobs scarce, he was scraping by with support from friends in the United States.

"If you just come back, you don't know nobody, " he remarked. "To find a place to stay, for people to try to find a job, it's hard."

According to Bell, in her city, some locals are discussing ways to better assist arrivals in finding work and reintegrating into society. Churches may support some individuals, but there isn't a broader program. She remarked housing is the biggest need right now.

Taken together, the developments around 'Not a safe place': Deported Haitians face violence, uncertainty point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.