ICE begins deporting Haitians who lost temporary protections

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday carried out its first deportation flight to Haiti since the Trump administration terminated deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians earlier this year.

The plane, which carried more than 160 people, arrived in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haïtien, The Associated Press reported. The U.S. has a ban in place on flights in and out of the country’s main airport in the capital city of Port-au-Prince due to ongoing gang violence.

The deportees on this flight included those previously covered under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a U.S. program that protects from deportation foreign nationals who cannot safely return to their home country and offers them a pathway to work authorization.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration could end this protection for the around 330,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians covered by this program.

The administration has looked to terminate deportation protections for migrants from 13 of the 17 countries covered by TPS, arguing that these countries no longer meet the required criteria.

The State Department still lists Haiti as a “ Level 4: Do Not Travel ” country on its travel advisory website, citing gang-related crime, terrorism, unrest and limited healthcare services in the nation. The department also notes Haiti has been under a national state of emergency since 2024.

Immigration activist groups have warned that people deported to Haiti could face dangerous conditions. The U.N. reported that more than 3,100 people were reported killed and 1,189 others were injured in Haiti from January to June.

Haiti’s Group Supporting Refugees and Returnees warned in a Thursday statement the country was “not ready to receive this number of migrants who were in the TPS program.”