The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it has re-established flights to Haiti for the purpose of deporting Haitian immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally.
Since 2011, DHS had focused on the removal of Haitians who had orders for removal or who were convicted of a crime. DHS was prepared to resume flights to ensure the return of a broad group of immigrants, but that was delayed when Hurricane Matthew struck in October.
“Removal flights from the United States to Haiti have now resumed,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said. “In the last several weeks, ICE has removed over 200 Haitian nationals and plans to significantly expand removal operations in the coming weeks.”
Johnson said in September that the change was made to bring U.S. policy for Haitians in line with “our existing enforcement priorities.”
“This includes those apprehended at the border attempting to enter the country illegally,” he said.
Johnson repeated that there has been a surge at the southern U.S. border for the last several months, and that there are now 41,000 people being detained, when the usual levels are between 31,000-34,000.
He said more than 4,400 of those currently being detained are Haitians.
DHS said this week it was looking at the option of expanding detention space to deal with the flood of immigrants.
