Trump admin sends 1st deportation flight to Haiti since ending temporary protected status
The Trump administration has sent the first deportation flight to Haiti since temporary protected status (TPS) ended for thousands of Haitians.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight carrying 161 passengers landed at Cap Haitien Airport, departing from Alexandria, Louisiana, on Thursday, according to a Department of Homeland Security official and the National Civil Aviation Office of Haiti.
All of the passengers were released, according to Cuban officials.
It is unclear if any former TPS holders were on the deportation flight. ICE has previously carried out deportation flights to Haiti under the Trump administration, but Thursday's flight is the first one since TPS ended.
ABC News previously reported that hundreds of Haitian immigrants in Ohio who had been in the United States under TPS were summoned by DHS for in-person check-ins with the agency, where some have been fitted with ankle monitors.
The flight comes as TPS for Haiti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Syria, Myanmar and other countries ended following a U.S. Supreme Court order in June that allowed the Trump administration to end TPS for more than 350,000 Haitians.
On Thursday, a third-country deportation flight landed in Liberia, marking the first forced third-country transfer to the West African nation under a deportation agreement with the U.S. government.
