The Trump administration deported a longtime Marathon resident with Temporary Protected Status to Haiti despite a federal judge\u2019s order that has kept the protections in place \u2014 and then allowed him to come back to the U.S. two weeks later.<\/p>\n
Read more How Canes GM turned \u2018disappointment\u2019 into dominance on way to Stanley Cup Final<\/a><\/p>\n Law enforcement agents picked up Brulan during a routine traffic stop on April 12 in the Keys while he was on his way to work, according to interviews and court records. He then spent nearly a month in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody \u2014 including in the state-run facility in the Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz \u2014 before being deported to Haiti on May 7.<\/p>\n While in his violence-stricken homeland, Brulan said he feared for his life. He routinely encountered gangs during his brief time in the capital of Port-au-Prince, he said. He returned to South Florida, his home for 22 years, through a wrongful detention lawsuit that his lawyer filed.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d rather be dead now than sent back,\u201d Brulan, who asked that his full name not be used because he still fears the gangs back in Haiti, told the Miami Herald.<\/p>\n Brulan is not the first TPS holder from Florida the Trump administration has deported despite active TPS protections or court orders. Haitian advocates have long raised concerns about Haitians with valid protections against deportation being sent back after being picked up both in the continental U.S. and in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In October, the Herald interviewed a Venezuelan father from Tampa who was sent to back to Venezuela even though a judge had upheld TPS for Venezuelans the same day he was arrested during a routine check-in at an immigration office.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Trump administration deports Venezuelan father with Temporary Protected Status<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n Since returning to office for a second term, President Donald Trump has targeted hundreds of thousands of immigrants with TPS from over a dozen countries for deportation. In both of his administrations, Trump has focused on Haitians who are fleeing extreme gang violence, the destructive aftermath of earthquakes and the collapse of state institutions. In his second term, the future of Haiti\u2019s TPS has reached the Supreme Court, which is currently weighing a request by the president to allow him to end the protections even as a lawsuit against termination proceeds in a lower court.<\/p>\n In the meantime, a federal judge in Washington D.C. has kept the protections alive through at least July 1, which the Trump administration has begrudgingly acknowledged.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n Brulan had an outstanding final deportation order from an immigration judge in 2004. He later obtained Temporary Protected Status in 2010, after the Obama administration designated Haiti for TPS, when a devastating earthquake killed hundreds of thousands and nearly destroyed Port-au-Prince. Since then, he has renewed his TPS multiple times and complied with the requirements to keep the protections in place.<\/p>\n That, his lawyer said, should have been enough to prevent the government from deporting him, describing his removal to Haiti as \u201cillegal.\u201d Federal law explicitly protects TPS holders from deportation while the designation is in effect.<\/p>\n \u201cBrulan\u2019s case is a reminder that due process matters, once we demonstrated that his removal was unlawful, we fought to return him and reunite him with his family. No one should be deported in violation of the law,\u201d said Alexandra Friz-Garcia, a Miami-based immigration attorney who represents Brulan.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond on Thursday to questions about why it had decided to deport Brulan or how it handled cases of TPS holders who had outstanding deportation orders.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Supreme Court weighs whether Trump can end Haitian TPS. South Florida is watching<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n Brulan is from the coastal commune of Mirago\u00e2ne, about two-and-a half hours from Port-au-Prince. He worked as a bus driver before coming to the United States in 2003. He left Haiti fearing life-threatening harm and persecution because of his political views and involvement in local politics, he told the Herald.<\/p>\n He has lived in South Florida, making a home in Marathon, since then. He wakes up before the sun rises to go to the first of three jobs at a cleaning company. He then goes to another job at a hotel, goes home to take a shower when he finishes, and heads to his job at a restaurant, he said. He goes home for the day at around 10:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Despite the grueling hours, he is grateful to be in the U.S. \u201cLife is great, I work, I have family. We have security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also how he\u2019s able to take care of his family, still in Haiti. His sisters, brother and all of their children are there. Every two weeks, he sends money to his relatives, which they use for healthcare and for schooling, he said. That financial support helps as many as 50 loved ones, Brulan estimates. Sometimes, strangers who know his relatives, ask him for help, he said, and he sends them money through his family.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has said its targets are individuals with criminal records. A search of public records for Brulan revealed only four traffic citations for speeding. Those took place inin 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2022. There was another for leaving his car on county property in 2018. His employer at the restaurant describes him as a \u201cvery good soul\u201d who sometimes prepares containers of supplies to send back home.<\/p>\n Brulan said he was on the way to one of his jobs when he was picked up last month. He is unclear which agency picked him up, and the Herald was unable to verify whether a state or federal agency first came across him. He told officers he was a TPS holder, and had shown his passport, work authorization and license as proof of his lawful status in the country \u2014 documents he said he always carries with him. The officer called someone to consult them about his case, likely federal authorities, as is standard in these sorts of traffic stops.<\/p>\n Read more New Wake preserve features trails that could have been lost to development<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe opened my car door, said get out, and after that, he arrested me,\u201d said Brulan.<\/p>\n After picking him up in Marathon, the officers took him to Key West and then Miramar. He later ended up in Alligator Alcatraz, the state facility in the Everglades.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way they treat us… if you are an animal, and you like the animal, you aren\u2019t going to bring him to Alcatraz,\u201d he said. Immigrants held at Alligator Alcatraz have reported scarcity of food, cages that reek of urine and use of force. The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, which runs the facility for ICE, has repeatedly denied allegations of mistreatment.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Beatings and pepper bombs: Conditions worsen at Alligator Alcatraz, detainees say<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n In early May, guards instructed Brulan to pick everything up and moved him to a section that housed just Haitians. He tried to call his boss, but the phone call didn\u2019t go through. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized, \u2018Oh, they are going to deport me,\u2019\u201d he said. An employee at the facility who checked his blood pressure and evaluated him before they removed him, he said, told him: \u201cGod bless you.\u201d<\/p>\n Brulan had not been to Haiti in over two decades before landing in Cap-Ha\u00eftien a port city on the northern coast that the U.S. government regularly uses for deportation flights because the country\u2019s main airport is under a Federal Aviation Administration flight ban due to gangs shooting at aircraft. As he made his way to the capital on a string of buses, the journey revealed the devastation his homeland has undergone since he had left.<\/p>\n Gang members controlling the main highways constantly stopped them, he said. They made passengers get out of the bus to frisk them and searched their luggage and other belongings for valuables. On the last stop, more than 15 men stopped them, pointing automatic rifles. \u201cI thought I was going to die,\u201d Brulan said.<\/p>\n When he finally arrived in Port-au-Prince, where the United Nations said on Thursday an unprecedented 300,000 people have been driven from their home by gang violence since March, Brulan said he could not recognize where he was amid the debris and destruction. Armed gangs, now in control of most of the capital, have emptied out entire neighborhoods, shuttered schools and set looted and set fire to hospitals.<\/p>\n Unable to make it to him hometown, which would require more travel through deadly gang territory, Brulan said he found refuge in the house where his brother still lives. His sisters, wanting to reunited with him after more than two decades, made the risky journey from their hometown. But as he hunkered down, he watched gangs patrol the streets through the windows, and didn\u2019t leave the house while he was there.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family cried when they saw me. They told me to stay inside,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you are deported, people don\u2019t know why you are deported. They don\u2019t know if you are a criminal or something.\u201d<\/p>\n His days, he said, were spent watching heavily armed gangs, through the window, patrolling the streets. Brula said he never left the house while he was there.<\/p>\n When his lawyer, Friz Garcia, called him last week to tell him that he would be able to return, Brulan could not believe it. The airline asked for paperwork that he could not provide because U.S. embassy operations in Haiti are heavily restricted because of security conditions. But eventually, he was allowed to board a plane destined for South Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like I was in a dream,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Brulan said that border agents questioned him for about two-and-a-half hours before letting him go back home to Marathon. One of the guards, he said, was Haitian American, who told him he was familiar with what was going on in Haiti because he had family there.<\/p>\n For now, Brulan is back in the U.S. and his unexpected deportation to Haiti is now behind him. His removal means that he no longer has a judge\u2019s order to remove him looming over his head.<\/p>\n But his family continues to live in difficult and dangerous conditions, which weighs on him, as does the separation from his family. And the potential end of TPS, now in the hands of the Supreme Court, has hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the U.S. like him uncertain about their future.<\/p>\n He fears ending up again in Haiti soon, unable to help his family or himself in the midst of the extreme gang violence.<\/p>\n \u201cI love America,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd I\u2019m going to pray so God keeps America safe, and so he keeps me here.\u201d<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 5:30 AM<\/span> with the headline “Trump administration deported Florida Keys man with TPS to Haiti. He\u2019s back in the U.S..” <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n