The U.S. returned more than 160 individuals to Haiti on Thursday, marking the first such flight since the Trump administration legally ended Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Haitians.
Due to extreme danger at Port-au-Prince's primary international airport, the flight landed in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. A U.S. government ban currently prohibits American commercial flights to the capital through early September amid persistent gang warfare.
Wearing white garments, many of the returnees obscured their faces for protection while reporters recorded their arrival. Almost all refused to speak, with several expressing fear of retaliation from gangs that control roughly 70 percent of Port-au-Prince and extensive territory beyond it.
According to Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti’s National Office of Migration, the group comprised TPS recipients alongside individuals who had served sentences in prison.
"It is not the Haitian state that asks for them to be sent back," he stated. "Our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. … We welcome them with the aim of accompanying them to their home."
Delva said a portion of those repatriated were born outside Haiti, despite having Haitian heritage.
He explained that a number of returnees intended to travel toward southern Haiti—a hazardous trip given that criminal gangs command key transit corridors and frequently open fire on passing traffic.
Others are heading to the western region, Delva said.
"There is one migrant who knows nothing about Haiti because he said he was coming from the Dominican Republic; that’s where he was born," Delva said.
He added that officials will seek to connect him with family members in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, where his parents reside.
Haitian immigration authorities provided the arriving individuals with up to $65, along with food and refreshments, on Thursday.
"Those who cannot reach their homes today, we will host them in secure spaces and the next day the process will continue until all migrants return home as they should," Delva said.
Delva did not clarify how many among the 161 individuals were TPS beneficiaries who had legally resided and worked in the U.S. since 2010.
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the termination of the TPS program in late June, impacting roughly 1 million people across more than a dozen nations.
Though the cases returned to lower courts, federal authorities had not extended employment authorizations for Haitians by late July.
By Aug. 5, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., dissolved an injunction barring deportations of Haitians under Temporary Protected Status, effectively finalizing the Supreme Court's earlier determination.
Advocacy groups have cautioned that Haiti remains far too volatile and lacks adequate infrastructure to accommodate repatriated individuals. In a population of nearly 12 million, over half require humanitarian aid due to escalating gang violence, poverty, and food insecurity.
Widespread violence has displaced a record 1.5 million people in Haiti, where United Nations figures record over 3,100 killings and 1,189 injuries between January and June.
One returnee offered a brief statement to The Associated Press upon arriving in Cap-Haïtien. Identifying himself as Jean Diane Louis, he said he left Haiti at age 5. He stated his family resides in New York City and that he served 19 years in prison for a crime he maintains he did not commit.
"Then ICE came and took me without questioning me," Louis said. "They just sent me here."
Amid ongoing instability, Haitian nationals in the U.S. remain subject to arrest and deportation.
On Thursday, federal authorities detained a well-known Haitian pastor at a gas station in Springfield, Ohio, according to faith-based advocacy group Springfield G92. Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also detained a second Haitian national accompanied by him.
The pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, was held in custody by immigration officials in Ohio, stated Marjory Wentworth, a spokesperson for Springfield G92.
She added that ICE personnel have maintained an increased presence in Springfield, a community of around 60,000 that drew national attention after President Donald Trump falsely alleged during his 2024 campaign that Haitian residents there ate dogs.
Haiti’s Group Supporting Refugees and Returnees has strongly criticized the expulsion flights.
"Haiti is not ready to receive this number of migrants who were in the TPS program," the organization noted in a statement on Thursday.
The organization highlighted that over 140,000 Haitians have been returned from neighboring nations, including the Dominican Republic, during the first six months of the year alone.
"We note that there are no government measures in place to adequately assist these migrants," the group stated.
It further observed that many returnees "have seen their dreams go up in smoke; the bonds they had already made in their communities are broken. Many are experiencing family separation."
The U.S. had managed roughly one deportation flight to Haiti since December 2023, based on data tracked by Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor. Flights since December 2025 have originated out of Alexandria, Louisiana—a primary hub for ICE removals—stopping in Miami before landing at Cap-Haitien International Airport.