A Haitian social-media personality known online as Djouly Best was deported to Haiti this week after U.S. immigration authorities arrested her in South Florida, released her, and then took her back into custody less than 24 hours later. Djouly Jean, 33, was one of 65 people removed on a flight that landed in Cap-Haïtien on Thursday, carrying 57 men and eight women who departed from Alexandria, Louisiana.
Jean was first arrested on November 2, according to the Miami Herald, which first reported her case. She was released, only to be detained again less than a day later, and she reportedly spent eight days total in immigration detention before being put on the deportation flight. Jean told the Herald she believed interviews and public statements she made after her first arrest contributed to her second detention and eventual deportation, saying that after she showed her ankle monitor in videos and a livestream, more than 200 people contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement to question why she had been released. She said she believed that reaction led ICE to arrest her again.
Jean also said she was denied access to her medication while detained, and that she had undergone fibroid surgery about two weeks before her deportation. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to the Herald's request for comment on her case.
Born on La Gonâve, Hoping to Return to the Dominican Republic
Jean was born on the island of La Gonâve and had previously lived in the Dominican Republic before coming to the United States. She told the Herald she has no intention of remaining in Haiti and hopes to return to the Dominican Republic, even as that country has separately intensified its own deportations of Haitians.
Haiti's Office of National Migration said it provided each returning deportee on Thursday's flight with basic necessities, food, water, psychosocial support, and $189 in cash. Sixty of the 65 returnees were given hotel accommodations, according to the office's director general, Jean Négot Bonheur Delva. The agency has described its standard reception package for deportees as including music, basic essentials, and cash, though the exact scale of assistance has varied from flight to flight.
Deportations to Haiti Have Surged Since TPS Ended
Jean's case lands amid a broader surge in removals to Haiti since U.S. immigration authorities ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in late July 2026. According to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services update, that termination followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision on TPS terminations issued June 25, 2026. Since then, hundreds of Haitians have been deported, and flights to Cap-Haïtien have gone from arriving about once a month to landing weekly, according to Human Rights Watch, which said more than 450 people had been deported to Haiti since July.
The Haitian Times reported that Haitian authorities counted 1,397 people deported from the United States since January 2026, with 529 of those arriving across six flights in the month after TPS ended, including a September 24 flight of 39 people from Miami to Cap-Haïtien. Flights have not always gone smoothly: the Herald previously reported that a September 10 flight carrying 82 migrants, including children, landed in Haiti after sunset at 7:05 p.m., hours later than its scheduled 12:22 p.m. arrival, after deportees spent more than 13 hours in shackles. Haiti's migration office said it had prepared to receive 71 people for that flight but learned afterward that more than two dozen additional detainees had been added to the manifest. An earlier August 20 flight was also affected by a passenger-count discrepancy, with officials initially expecting 175 people before Delva confirmed only 161 adults were aboard.
A Record Year for Removals
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced that the department deported a record 483,200 people during fiscal year 2026, which ended September 30, and said more than 3 million migrants have left the United States during the Trump administration. Mullin described those deported and arrested as the “worst of the worst.” Separately, CBS News reported that ICE logged more than 491,000 immigration arrests in the same fiscal year, including nearly 475,000 administrative arrests, surpassing the agency's previous annual record of 442,640 set in fiscal year 2025. A TRAC analysis cited by the outlet found that formal removals made up just 63% of deportations in July and August 2026, with the remainder classified as voluntary departures and returns.
