(CMR) The U.S. sent a deportation flight to Haiti on Thursday, a day after the State Department called on all U.S. citizens to leave the country immediately due to security concerns. The deportation flight comes as Haitians attempt to flee gang violence in the Caribbean nation.
The scheduled deportation flight, the second to Haiti this month, left Alexandria, La., shortly before 8 a.m. EDT and is scheduled to land in Port-au-Prince shortly after 11 a.m, The Hill reported.
“Those two cannot happen at the same time. You cannot be evacuating people and deporting people at the same time. That is beyond inhumane. It is definitely a violation against human rights,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
The flight was reportedly scheduled to depart with more than 60 Haitians on board.
According to The Hill, earlier in August, ICE commissioned about 850 flights to move immigration detainees within the United States, a 50 percent increase from the month before, as well as approximately 150 removal flights, up 51 percent from July.
ICE air operations are at a 44-month high, and the 150 removal flights this month are the most since September of 2021, when the Biden administration operated 193 such flights, including many to Haiti
ICE has also increased the visibility of those flights, touting its efforts to repatriate foreign nationals: On Wednesday, it offered media footage of three separate deportation flights to Ecuador.
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