Trump’s new mass deportation target

Haitian immigrants at a protest in Salisbury, Maryland, on August 26, 2026. | Dominic Gwinn/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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After ending legal protections for 350,000 Haitians living in the United States, the Trump administration is ramping up its efforts to deport them back to a country engulfed in violence — and bragging about it.

“Those with terminated TPS are in our nation Illegally,” the Department of Homeland Security X account posted on Thursday evening , alongside a video of chained Haitian immigrants set to cheery music.

“They have two options: LEAVE IMMEDIATELY or be DEPORTED.” Temporary protected status (TPS) is extended to immigrants for whom conflict, natural disaster, or another catastrophe means returning home would be unsafe, and Haiti certainly qualifies: The island nation has been in crisis since its president was assassinated in 2021, with armed gangs controlling most of the capital city; earlier this week, dozens were killed and kidnapped near the capital.

Despite all that, the administration first attempted to end TPS protections for Haitians living in the US last year, and succeeded after the Supreme Court gave its blessing in June.

Now, it’s sending them back to a country where the State Department warns Americans not to travel “for any reason” because of “crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest, and limited health care.” On Thursday, that effort included a deportation flight carrying families with young children born in the US .

Trump’s indiscriminate, record-breaking immigration crackdown Haitian immigrants in the US aren’t the only people whom Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is targeting more aggressively.

According to immigration data released this week by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA, ICE arrested a record number of people in two consecutive months this summer: first 43,000 in June, then nearly 50,000 last month.

As arrests surge, who’s being targeted is changing, too.

More and more ICE arrestees don’t have a criminal record; in July, immigrants with only civil immigration violations made up a majority of arrests.

Often, they also have active immigration cases pursuing asylum, a green card, or some other legal status, as the Seattle Times reported this week .

Overall, ICE detentions are also rising again, though they’re still lower than they were at the start of the year.

The pace of arrests reflects ICE’s growing size — 29,000 employees in June, according to the New York Times , compared to 21,000 in January 2025 — as well as its glut of cash after Trump’s reconciliation bill forked over $75 billion to the agency last year.