US deports 161 Haitians as TPS protections end amid gang violence

The United States deported 161 people to Haiti after courts cleared the end of TPS protections. The return has intensified fears for migrants entering a country gripped by gang violence and scarce support.

In Short

• Flight landed in Cap-Haitien as Port-au-Prince airport stayed too unsafe
• Many returnees hid their faces, fearing gangs controlling much of the capital
• Officials offered food, drinks and up to 65 dollars for onward travel

The United States deported 161 people to Haiti on Thursday for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for around 350,000 Haitians. The move comes as Haiti faces worsening gang violence and as activists warn that the country is too dangerous and too poorly equipped to support people being sent back.

The deportation flight landed in the northern city of Cap-Haitien because the main international airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous. The US government has barred US commercial flights to Haiti's capital until early September because of continuing gang violence.

The deportees arrived dressed in white, with many covering their faces as journalists filmed them. Almost all refused to speak, with some fearing they could be targeted by gangs that control an estimated 70 per cent of Port-au-Prince and areas beyond it. Jean Negot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti's National Office of Migration, said those deported included TPS holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences.

"It is not the Haitian state that asks for them to be sent back," Delva said. "Our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. ... We welcome them with the aim of accompanying them to their home." He said some of those deported were not born in Haiti, although they are of Haitian descent. Some planned to travel to Haiti's southern region, even though gangs control the main routes there and are known to open fire at random on passing vehicles. Others were heading to the country's western region.

Delva said one deportee knew nothing about Haiti because he was born in the Dominican Republic. "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," he said. Delva added that officials would try to reunite him with possible relatives in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, where his mother and father live.

Haitian immigration officials offered the deportees up to 65 dollars and something to eat and drink. "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 said. He did not say how many of the 161 deportees were TPS holders who had been living and working legally in the US since 2010.

In late June, the US Supreme Court allowed the TPS programme to end, affecting around 1 million people from more than a dozen countries. The cases returned to lower courts, but by late July the government had not extended work permits for Haitians. On August 5, a federal judge in Washington, DC, lifted an order blocking the deportation of Haitians on TPS, a step that followed the Supreme Court ruling.

Activists have said Haiti is too dangerous for deportees and lacks the resources to support them. In the country of nearly 12 million people, more than half need humanitarian assistance because of rising gang violence, deepening poverty, hunger and unrest. UN figures show gang violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people across Haiti, while more than 3,100 people were killed between January and June and another 1,189 were injured.

One deportee briefly spoke to The Associated Press after landing in Cap-Haitien. Identifying himself as Jean Diane Louis, he said he had left Haiti when he was five and that his family now lives in New York City. He said he had been sentenced to 19 years in prison for an unspecified crime that he insisted he did not commit. "Then ICE came and took me without questioning me," Louis said. "They just sent me here."

As gang violence continues, Haitian migrants in the US are still being arrested and deported. On Thursday, US authorities arrested Haitian pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien at a petrol station in Springfield, Ohio, according to Springfield G92, a faith-based group that supports Haitian immigrants. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement also arrested another Haitian man who was with him. Marjory Wentworth, a spokesperson for Springfield G92, said Adrien was being held by immigration authorities in Ohio and that ICE had maintained a strong presence in Springfield in recent days. The city of about 60,000 drew attention when Donald Trump falsely claimed during his 2024 campaign that Haitian residents there ate dogs.

Haiti's Group Supporting Refugees and Returnees criticised the deportations. "Haiti is not ready to receive this number of migrants who were in the TPS programme," it said in a statement on Thursday. The group said that more than 140,000 Haitians had been deported from neighbouring countries, including the Dominican Republic, in the first half of the year alone. "We note that there are no government measures in place to adequately assist these migrants," it said, adding that many of those deported "have seen their dreams go up in smoke; the bonds they had already made in their communities are broken. Many are experiencing family separation."

According to Human Rights First's ICE Flight Monitor, the US has operated about one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023. Since December 2025, those flights have departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, a hub for ICE deportation flights, and stopped in Miami before heading to Cap-Haitien International Airport. Thursday's flight marked the first return of deportees to Haiti since the legal changes to TPS, even as officials and activists warned that many of those sent back face a country in deep crisis.

With PTI Inputs

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