First deportation since TPS end lands in Cap-Haïtien

More than 160 Haitian nationals were deported from the U.S. to Haiti on Thursday aboard an Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flight, the first since the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status last month for more than 300,000 Haitians living in the United States.

The aircraft landed shortly before noon in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city. It was the eight deportation flight from the United States to Haiti this year and also the first since U.S. officials warned Haitian authorities to expect an increase in removals following the end of the protections that had shielded their nationals in the United States. The U.S. said it would increase flights to twice a week, returning about 250 Haitians weekly.

The ICE Air flight originated in Alexandria, Lousiana. Prior to that, a flight landed in Haiti on July 16 with a number of deportees with criminal records. A scheduled flight shortly after was canceled due to technical issues.

Haiti’s National Office of Migration had initially expected 175 people aboard the aircraft, but director general Jean Négot Bonheur Delva said there were 161 adults, correcting an earlier statement that there were children as well.

Among them were individuals placed in removal proceedings after entering the United States illegally as well as deportees who had completed prison sentences or had been arrested and charged with crimes.

Also among them, Delva said, were people who were born outside of Haiti but were sent to the country because they had a parent who was Haitian. This included individuals born in Chile as well as the Dominican Republic. Upon arriving, the returnees are greeted by the National Migration Office staff and given the equivalent of $76.40 to get home, courtesy of the Haitian government.

The amount isn’t enough to cover a one-way ticket to Port-au-Prince, which is around $250. However, it will help some people get through gang-controlled roads, which come with their own risks.

The increase in deportations comes as Haiti struggles with gang-fueled violence and a humanitarian crisis.

Earlier this week, a task force using explosive drones targeted one of the country’s more notorious gang leaders, Vitel’homme Innocent, who is wanted by the FBI for crimes committed against U.S. citizens. However, even though the drone hit a vehicle he was in, he apparently survived the attack.

Asked Thursday about the impact of the end of TPS on United Nations agencies in Haiti, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said the global entity was already struggling to respond to multiple crises in the Caribbean nation.

“The U.N. team in Haiti is stretched,” he said, “but our colleagues on the ground are doing whatever they can to support the government as people are being forcibly returned home, again, in a place where there is a huge lack of security, a lack of opportunity, and a very, very dangerous situation.”

This story was originally published August 20, 2026 at 5:14 PM.

Jacqueline Charles

Miami Herald

Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the English-speaking Caribbean for the Miami Herald for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.