More than 33,000 people have reportedly fled Haiti's capital in a span of less than two weeks as gangs pillaged homes and attacked state institutions.
The Biden administration sent about 50 Haitians back to their country on Thursday, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation still struggling with surging gang violence.
In a statement, the Homeland Security Department said it will continue to enforce US laws and policy throughout the Florida Straits and the Caribbean region, as well as at the southwest border.
US policy is to return non-citizens who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States.
The authorities didn't offer details of the flight beyond how many deported Haitians were aboard.
Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data, said a plane left Alexandria, Louisiana, a hub for deportation operations, and arrived in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, after a stop in Miami.
According to a report last month from the UN's International Organization for Migration, more than 33,000 people fled Haiti's capital in a span of less than two weeks as gangs pillaged homes and attacked state institutions.
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