First group of deportees arrives in troubled Haiti after US ends TPS program

CAP-HAITIEN: The U.S. Deported more than 160 individuals to Haiti on Thursday for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350, 000 Haitians.

Key points

• Had conducted regarding one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023, according to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor.
• According to The group, more than 140, 000 Haitians have been deported from neighboring 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.
• Authorities arrested a popular Haitian pastor at a gas station in Springfield, Ohio, according to Springfield G92, a faith-based group supporting Haitian immigrants.
• The deportees included TPS holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences, remarked Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti's National Office of Migration.

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 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, " he remarked. "Our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. We welcome them with the aim of accompanying them to their home." Deported Haitians search for a home.

According to Delva, some of the deportees were not born in Haiti, although they are of Haitian descent.

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, " Delva remarked.

US Supreme Court paves way for mass deportation of Haitians, Syrians 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.

Immigration authorities in Haiti on Thursday offered deportees a maximum of $65 and something to drink and eat.

"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, " Delva remarked.

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 program 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.

On Aug. 5, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., lifted an order preventing deportations of Haitians on Temporary Protected Status. It was effectively a formality after the Supreme Court ruling in June. Activists warn Haiti is too dangerous for deportees.

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 U.N. Statistics.

Trump shares video of Florida killing by alleged Haitian immigrant to bolster mass deportation push 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, " Louis remarked. "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.

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 program, " it remarked in an official note Thursday.

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

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."

For context, the U.S. Had conducted regarding one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023, according to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor. It tracks flight data. 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.

In short, first group of deportees arrives in troubled Haiti after US ends TPS is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.