The San Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) on Friday strongly condemned as ‘unconscionable’ the Trump administration’s deportation of more than 160 Haitian nationals to Haiti, marking the first large-scale deportation flight following the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 350,00- Haitians residing in the United States.
HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the deportees arrived in Haiti’s second largest city, Cap-Haïtien, rather than in Port-au-Prince, the capital, ‘because violence has made Haiti’s capital effectively inaccessible.
‘This is not simply a question of immigration enforcement. We are talking about human beings being sent into a country where more than a million people have already been driven from their homes and where there are security and humanitarian crises,’ she said.
‘The United States cannot claim that Haiti is safe while simultaneously acknowledging the extraordinary security risks that prevent even commercial flights from operating in Port-au-Prince and telling the whole world to not travel there,’ added Jozef, calling for a moratorium on deportations to Haiti.
‘These deportations are unconscionable and will contribute to the continued destabilisation of Haiti,’ she continued, urging the US Senate to ‘immediately extend TPS for a minimum of three years by passing S. 4814 (legislation), until we are able to pass comprehensive immigration reform to permanently protect all TPS and DACA (Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals) recipients across this nation.’
Jozef pointed to United Nations data that states that nearly 1.5 million Haitians are internally displaced, while 6.4 million people-more than half the French-speaking Caribbean country’s population-are expected to require humanitarian assistance in 2026.
‘The security situation continues to deteriorate,’ she said. ‘Between March and July alone, the United Nations documented at least 613 people killed, 375 injured, and more than 18,000 displaced in violence concentrated in Cité Soleil and the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac.
‘Against this backdrop, HBA warns that returning people to Haiti without adequate safeguards, resources, housing, security, and access to essential services as hospitals and other sustainable infrastructure, places lives at serious risk,’ added Jozef, stating that more than 110,000 Haitian nationals had already been forcibly returned to Haiti since January 2026, according to the United Nations.
Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, director general of Haiti’s National Office of Migration, told reporters on Thursday that the deportees included TPS holders and Haitians who had served prison sentences in the US.
‘It is not the Haitian state that asks for them to be sent back,’ he said. ‘Our mission is to welcome migrants of forced return. We welcome them with the aim of accompanying them to their home.
‘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 added.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this week also described as ‘callous, reckless and inhumane’ US President Donald J. Trump’s termination of TPS for Haitians and other immigrants.
In a letter to US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Hochul reiterated her strong opposition to the termination of protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants under TPS.
‘By knowingly and cruelly forcing thousands of families to leave our country and return to their home countries, regardless of any ongoing or worsening humanitarian crises, the White House is committing a reckless and inhumane act,’ Hochul told Mullin. ‘But it is not too late to reverse course.
‘I once again urge you to fully restore TPS for those who cannot return due to extreme instability, violence and crises in TPS-designated countries. These individuals have made enormous contributions to our communities and our economy, and helped define the character of our state,’ she added.