A S. deportation flight landed in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, on Thursday, the first since the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitians. The flight carried more than 50 deportees, including two minors, according to Haiti's National Office of Migration. It arrived in the northern city because the main airport in Port-au-Prince is considered too dangerous amid widespread gang violence.

Among those on the flight was Jay Dabelus, a professional boxer born in the Bahamas who said he had never lived in Haiti. "I just arrived in Haiti. I don't know much about Haiti. Actually, I don't know anything about Haiti," Dabelus told reporters. "I was born in the Bahamas, and I had been living in the A. for about 20-something years." Dabelus said he left the Bahamas as a child and spent more than two decades in the United States before being detained and deported. Now in Haiti, he said he has no family or resources to rely on. "Other than that, I'm in the land of Haiti. It is nice here, but I am trying to move on. I don't have any resources, family members, or people to aid me, so I am trying to see how I can go from there," he said.

Several deportees covered their faces after landing, highlighting the security fears they face in a country many may have little or no connection to. The flight came days after a gang attack in Haiti left 47 people dead and more than 50 kidnapped, according to reports. The S. State Department's travel advisory for Haiti is at its highest level, stating: "Do not travel to Haiti for any reason."

Background to the deportation

The flight was the second S. deportation flight to Haiti since the end of TPS, which protected some 350,000 Haitians living in the United States. The first flight, on August 20, carried more than 160 people. TPS, enacted by Congress in 1990, allows people to stay in the S. when their home countries are considered too dangerous.

The end of TPS for Haitians came into effect in late July, after the Supreme Court in June allowed the Trump administration to proceed with plans to cancel the status. The decision followed a Washington C. district judge removing a stay on deportations.

The DHS video controversy

A video released by the S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday, shared on social media platform X, shows several Black men being led up a set of stairs onto a plane, their hands and feet bound and tied to a chain around their waists. The post accompanying the video said: "Haiti TPS has been TERMINATED. Those with terminated TPS are in our nation Illegally. They have two options: LEAVE IMMEDIATELY or be DEPORTED." The video sparked outrage, with critics accusing Washington of sowing fear in Haitian communities.

The Florida Democratic Party wrote on X: "The Trump administration terminated TPS for Haitian families and is bragging about sending them back to a war-torn country. This isn't strength. It's depravity dressed up as policy." Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari commented, saying "amid an endless barrage of depravity from the Trump regime ... this is among the worst."

The White House defended the administration's actions. Spokesperson Lauren Bis told CBC News in an email: "The federal courts have ordered the Haitian illegals must leave the S. and we have generously made free flights available to the destination of their choice." A DHS spokesperson said the department does not disclose information about such flights "for operational security and the safety of our personnel."

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said "entire communities are living in fear" and that Haiti "remains completely unsafe." Krish O'Mara Vignarajah of Global Refuge called the deportation a "stunning contradiction" and an "unconscionable abdication of our moral responsibility."

Deportation numbers and route

There is some discrepancy in the reported number of deportees on Thursday's flight. Haiti's National Office of Migration said it carried more than 50 people, while the Miami Herald reported more than 160, and The New York Times reported about 57. The flight arrived in Cap-Haïtien rather than Port-au-Prince because the capital's main airport is considered too dangerous; the S. has a ban on commercial flights to the capital through early September due to gang violence.

Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, Haiti's migration director, told the Miami Herald that the flight included people born in Chile and the Dominican Republic who were sent to Haiti because they had a Haitian parent. Deportees were reportedly given 40 to get home, less than the price of a ticket to Port-au-Prince from Cap-Haïtien.

ICE is believed to have carried out eight flights from the S. to Haiti so far this year, including a flight on July 16 carrying deportees with criminal records. The DHS said on Monday that it sent 162 Haitians back on the Aug. 20 flight. The New York Times reported the S. plans to increase deportations from one flight per month to one per week.