A plane from Miami arrived in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, with 46 passengers, 25 of who were convicted criminals, according to a Haitian government source.
The Trump administration has cancelled protections that shielded about half a million Haitians from deportation, meaning they would lose their work permits and could be expelled from the country. Many of the Haitians deported on Tuesday had crossed the US border illegally or were awaiting Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which entitles them to remain in the country but does not provide a long-term path to citizenship.
Makenson Estilis had been in Brazil since 2013, but decided to travel to the US in hopes of receiving Temporary Protected Status under President Biden. “I travelled to Mexico and then entered the United States,” he said.
The decision to end TPS was announced in February and is part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to fulfil campaign promises on mass deportations and, in particular, to reduce the use of TPS, which was greatly expanded under the Biden administration to cover about one million immigrants.
As the security situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate, human rights and migrant rights groups have called for a halt to deportation flights to Haiti, saying the US is “deliberately condemning the most vulnerable people who have come to us in times of need to imminent danger.”
