ICE Sends Second Deportation Flight to Haiti in a Week. There Are Kids Aboard

The Department of Homeland Security sent a second deportation flight in a week to Haiti on Thursday, returning 57 Haitians to the unstable Caribbean country, including several children born in the U.S. and Brazil.

The children were part of two families aboard the Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flight that landed shortly after 11:30 a.m. in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city and the main gateway for international flights since gang violence prompted restrictions on U.S. carriers flying into Port-au-Prince.

The youngest person aboard the ICE Air flight was a 3-year-old born in the U.S., according to information shared with the Miami Herald after the passenger arrived.

The deported parents of the children condemned the move, telling the Herald that they found it “scandalous” that children born in the U.S. were being sent to Haiti. They also condemned the Haitian government for agreeing to take them back when the government is not prepared to accept returnees. {snip}

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Until now, deportation flights to Haiti have taken place an average of once a month. The previous flight was last Thursday and had 161 deportees, including over a dozen individuals with criminal records that included sex crimes involving children.

Last month, however, U.S. officials warned Haitian authorities to expect an increase in deportations following the Supreme Court’s decision to allow President Donald Trump to end Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation even while litigation challenging the termination continues in the courts. The plan at the time, was to return up to 250 Haitians a week via two weekly flights.

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Haiti Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé previously told the Miami Herald that the timing was not right to return Haitians to the country, which is not only grappling with roads blocked by gangs, government buildings and schools overtaken by the displaced and a surge in violence, but is also trying to organize its first general elections in a decade.

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This week dozens of Haitian migrants were taken to the Krome Detention Center in southwest Miami-Dade after being detained in front of grocery stores and shopping malls.

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