First group of deportees arrives in troubled Haiti after U.S. ends TPS programme

First group of deportees arrives in troubled Haiti after U.S.

Key points

• Since December 2025, flights have originated in Alexandria, Louisiana, a hub for ICE deportation flights, with a stop in Miami on the way to Cap-Haitien International Airport.
• According to The group, more than 140, 000 Haitians have been deported from neighbouring countries, including the Dominican Republic, in the first half of the year alone.
• The pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, was being held by immigration authorities in Ohio, remarked Marjory Wentworth, a spokesperson for Springfield G92.
• The deportees included TPS holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences, remarked Jean Negot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti's National Office of Migration.
• Immigration authorities in Haiti on Thursday (August 20) offered deportees a maximum of $65 and something to drink and eat.

First group of deportees arrives in troubled Haiti after U.S. Ends TPS programme The deportees included Temporary Protected Status holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences, remarked Jean Negot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti's National Office of Migration. Updated – August 21, 2026 11: 35 am IST – Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

Notably, the U.S. And Haitian flags flutter in Boston, Massachusetts. File Photo Credit: Reuters.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Deported more than 160 individuals to Haiti on Thursday (August 20, 2026) for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for some 350, 000 Haitians.

Notably, the plane landed in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien since the main international airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous. The U.S. Administration at present has a ban on U.S. Commercial flights to Haiti's capital through early September since of ongoing gang violence.

For context, the deportees were clad in white, and plenty of covered their faces out of safety as journalists filmed their arrival. Almost all declined to talk, with some fearing being targeted by gangs that control an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and swaths of land beyond.

In practice, the deportees included TPS holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences, remarked Jean Negot 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, " he remarked. "Our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. We welcome them with the aim of accompanying them to their home."

He remarked that a number of deportees planned to travel to Haiti's southern region, a dangerous journey since gangs control the main routes leading to that area and are known to randomly open fire on vehicles passing through. Others are going to Haiti's western region, he remarked.

"There is one migrant who knows nothing about Haiti because he said he was coming from the Dominican Republic; that's where he was born, " Mr. Delva remarked.

He remarked the administration would attempt to reunify him with any potential relatives in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, where his mother and father live.

Migrants deported from the United States walk to a waiting bus after deplaning Photo Credit: AP.

"Those who cannot reach their homes today, we will host them in secure spaces, and the next day the process will continue until all migrants return home as they should, " Mr. Delva remarked.

Mr. Delva did not say how plenty of of the 161 deportees were TPS holders who had been living and working legally in the U.S. Since 2010.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the TPS programme to end, affecting some 1 million individuals from more than a dozen countries.

In practice, the cases went back to the lower courts, but by late July, the administration had not extended work permits for Haitians. Why does instability and chaos persist in Haiti? Explained.

On Aug. 5, a federal judge in Washington, DC, lifted an order preventing deportations of Haitians on Temporary Protected Status. It was effectively a formality after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Activists have cautioned that Haiti is at present too dangerous and doesn't have enough resources to support those being deported to a country of almost 12 million individuals, of which more than half need humanitarian assistance as of surging gang violence and deepening poverty, hunger and violence.

Gang violence already has displaced a record 1.5 million individuals throughout Haiti, where more than 3, 100 individuals were noted killed from January to June and another 1, 189 injured, according to UN statistics.

One deportee briefly spoke to The Associated Press as he arrived in Cap-Haitien. He identified himself as Jean Diane Louis and remarked he left Haiti when he was 5 years old. He remarked 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, " he remarked. "They just sent me here." As gang violence persists, Haitian migrants in the U.S. Continue to be arrested and deported. Hunger deepens as relentless gang violence targets Haiti's capital.

On Thursday (August 20), 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.

For context, the pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, was being held by immigration authorities in Ohio, remarked Marjory Wentworth, a spokesperson for Springfield G92. She remarked ICE has been a heavy presence in recent days in Springfield, a city of concerning 60, 000 individuals that gained attention when U.S. President Donald Trump remarked falsely during his 2024 campaign that Haitian residents there ate dogs. Haiti's Group Supporting Refugees and Returnees has decried the deportations.

"Haiti is not ready to receive this number of migrants who were in the TPS programme, " it remarked in an official note.

"We note that there are no government measures in place to adequately assist these migrants, " the group remarked.

UN Security Council pressures Haiti's leaders to hold general election as deadline nears.

It continued that numerous of those deported "have seen their dreams go up in smoke; the bonds they had already created in their communities are broken. Plenty of are experiencing family separation." The U.S. Has conducted concerning one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023, according to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor. It tracks flight data.

Taken together, the developments around first group of deportees arrives in troubled Haiti after U.S. Ends TPS point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.