The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a second deportation flight to Haiti in just one week Thursday, returning 57 Haitians to the country — including several children born in the United States and Brazil.
The ICE Air charter flight landed shortly after 11:30 a.m. in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, where international flights have increasingly been routed because of gang violence and restrictions affecting flights to Port-au-Prince.
Among those deported was a 3-year-old child born in the United States. The children were traveling with their parents as part of two families aboard the flight.
The parents condemned the decision, calling it “scandalous” that children born in the U.S. were being sent to Haiti. They also criticized the Haitian government for accepting returnees while the country continues to face severe security and humanitarian challenges.
The flight, GXA6196, originated in Alexandria, Louisiana, and departed Opa-locka Executive Airport in Florida at 10:04 a.m. before arriving in Cap-Haïtien.
The development comes just one week after another ICE flight returned 161 Haitians, including more than a dozen people with criminal records involving sex crimes against children.
U.S. officials have previously warned Haiti to expect a significant increase in deportations following the Supreme Court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to move forward with ending Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, although litigation over the termination continues.
More than 300,000 Haitians had been enrolled in TPS, which allowed them to legally live and work in the United States because of dangerous conditions in Haiti.
The potential increase to as many as two deportation flights a week has sparked concern among Haitian immigrant-rights groups, who argue that Haiti remains too dangerous for large-scale returns.
Haiti is still grappling with widespread gang violence, blocked roads, displaced people occupying public buildings and schools, and preparations for its first general elections in a decade.
The U.S. government maintains that conditions have improved enough to allow deportations.
The presence of U.S.-born children aboard the latest flight has added another deeply controversial dimension to the escalating deportation policy.
