ICE deported More than 160 people traveled to Haiti on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold the administrative suspension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 330,000 Haitians despite widespread gang violence across the country.
The charter flight landed in the northern city Cap-Haïtien instead of the capital Port-au-Prince, as gangs reportedly control around 70 percent of the capital and surrounding areas. Officials reportedly feared that arriving deportees would quickly become targets of gangs. According to dincluding the Director General of Haiti’s National Office for Migration, Jean Négot Bonheur Delva The deportees included former TPS holders, as well as people who had previously served prison sentences, and even people of Haitian descent but who were born elsewhere.
Several humanitarian groups have called for deportations to Haiti to stop immediately on the grounds that the nation was too dangerous, especially for women and children. The U.S. State Department continues to list Haiti as a “Don’t travel” country in his travel report.
The deportation is the first act of deportation to Haiti following President Donald Trump’s repeal of TPS for Haitian immigrants. The program had previously allowed individuals to live and work in the United States for 18 months at a time to seek protection from violence and social unrest in Haiti.
In June, the Supreme Court upheld the administrative decision to end the program, saying the decision was within the sole discretion of the executive branch. Dissenting justices argued that upon closer inspection, certain Trump statements about Haitian migrants revealed racially motivated motivations for ending the program, allowing the court to more closely scrutinize the executive actions. The ruling overturned a January ruling by a federal appeals court that dismissed the administrative lawsuit on the grounds that then-Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem had exceeded executive powers authorized by Congress.
In 2024, then-candidate Trump falsely claimed that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio regularly kidnapped and ate local pets. The comments sparked nationwide controversy and several lawsuits. ICE activity in the Springfield area has reportedly increased following the Supreme Court ruling increasedand many individuals in Haitian communities across the country have reportedly done so hid from public life out of fear of ICE detention.
Haiti has suffered for years from deteriorating social, legal and institutional structures, which have been exacerbated by the resignation of the Prime Minister Ariel Henry in March 2024 and subsequent installation of an interim government following increasing gang control in the country. In response to the crisis, the United Nations established a multinational Gang Suppression Force in September 2025 to curb gang violence.
Despite all efforts, the country continues to face massacres of civilians, child trafficking, mass displacement and a deterioration in the rule of law. According to the UNBetween January and June 2026, over 1.5 million people were displaced and over 3,100 people were killed.
