At about 9 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14, Marie Prospère acquired an pressing cellphone name from her aunt Sirena Prosper. A number of legislation enforcement officers had come to the again door of Prosper’s magnificence salon in Pompano Seashore, Fla., asking questions.
First, they requested her whose kids have been taking part in round close to the store, Royal Hands Salon on South Cypress Highway. Prosper, who was closing up for the night time, stated the youngsters have been hers. They then requested to see Prosper’s I.D.
Pondering they wished proof the boys – ages 14, 12 and 10 – have been hers, Prosper had certainly one of them take the I.D. card to the brokers exterior. Then she observed one sporting a prime marked “Federal Agent.”
Prosper referred to as her niece, who lived close by.
“She was saying, ‘Get my I.D.’ and ‘shut my door,’” Prospère remembers overhearing via the cellphone. “The subsequent factor I heard was screaming and all types of ‘whoa.’ That’s once I left my home and I went over there.”
About 5 minutes later, Prospère arrived on the store. She noticed three males in face coverings and one with out, all sporting tops marked “GEO.” She had heard of GEO, the privately-owned prison facilities company whose jails U.S. Immigration and Prospects Enforcement (ICE) contracts to detain immigrants.
Inside one of many vans was Prosper, sitting with the door large open. The youngsters, ages 14, 12 and 10, have been watching. One was recording on his cellphone.
“She was crying, her youngsters have been crying,” Prospère stated. “She was simply telling me to name a number of individuals for her, to allow them to know.”
“Then I took the children and I left.”
One week later, Prospère was again exterior the Royal Fingers Salon – this time with extra relations for a prayer vigil demanding Prosper’s launch from ICE custody. At the moment being held on the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Sirena could also be deported as quickly as Sept. 24 and to Haiti — a rustic they are saying she has by no means recognized since she was born within the Bahamas.
In the meantime, her family members say, they’re scrambling to look after Prosper’s three youngest kids.
“We try to get Sirena dwelling and convey her again to her youngsters,” stated Alexandre “Child” Francois, one other cousin. “She’s a loving mom, a loving daughter and a loving hairdresser.
“Get Sirena dwelling.”
A detention 25 years coming
Prosper, a mom of seven and grandmother of three, is in deportation proceedings due to an armed housebreaking conviction from 25 years in the past, her household and ICE say. In an electronic mail to The Haitian Occasions, ICE stated an immigration decide issued a final order of removal for Prosper on January 9, 2002, and so they determined to arrest her now due to what they described as her “in depth legal report.”
Tracing Prosper’s path with immigration over 20 years highlights many pitfalls communities face because the Trump administration carries out its mass deportation agenda. For essentially the most half, the plight of recently-arrived Haitians who misplaced momentary protected standing (TPS) has acquired a lot consideration concerning the Haitian group as an ICE goal. Nevertheless, of the three,600 Haitians arrested since January 2025 so far embrace individuals of varied statuses whose permission to remain within the U.S. their households thought had lengthy been settled.
Immigration legislation specialists have beforehand advised The Haitian Occasions that last deportation orders stay lively and could also be executed at any time, except an affected individual applies for and obtains a proper reversal. They are saying even when an immigration decide grants a stay of removal, which halts the deportation course of, the order stands.
To Frandley Julien, a South Florida-based immigration legal professional who doesn’t characterize Prosper or know the case, the detention underscores the Trump administration’s disregard for the influence on households.
“This immigration system must take into consideration the steadiness of equities slightly bit extra,” Julien stated.
“Though somebody could have a elimination order, when you think about the steadiness of equities, clearly this lady is a web contributor to American society,” he added. “Eradicating her not solely hurts the household, but it surely doesn’t resolve any challenge for society at giant.”
Haitian ICE arrests mirrors nationwide surge
In latest months alone, ICE arrested greater than 50,000 individuals every in July and August, in response to the Department of Homeland Security. Researchers with the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA have discovered that in Florida this yr, immigration brokers have detained more than 5,000 people per day.
Between January and August, the most recent interval for which knowledge is accessible, immigration arrests of Haitians surged to 1,803 Haitians – together with a spike of 413 in July alone. The yr’s whole represents about 34% of the full 5,295 arrested since October 2022. The general rise additionally displays widespread reviews of ICE exercise in Springfield, Ohio and quite a few cities with a big focus of Haitians.
So far as deportation figures, Haiti’s Nationwide Workplace of Migration reported greater than 400 individuals have been deported from the U.S. since July.
From Freeport to ICE check-ins
Within the late Nineteen Seventies, Prosper’s dad and mom migrated from Saint-Louis du-Nord on Haiti’s northwest coast to the Bahamas. Her mom, who was pregnant with Prosper on the time, gave delivery to her in Freeport – a city on Grand Bahama.
Six months after that, the household made their solution to Florida with child Sirena.
When Prosper was about 20 years outdated, in response to Broward County courtroom data, she was charged in 1998 with armed burglary. Out there digital data don’t present particulars of the arrests, however in response to Marie Prospère, her aunt had gotten right into a struggle with one other lady inside a house Prosper was not alleged to be in. In any case, Prosper was convicted, then sentenced to serve three years in jail.
As is frequent when a non-citizen is convicted of a felony, judges embrace an immigration consequence. On this case, an immigration decide issued the 2002 order for deportation, a civil matter.
As her jail launch date neared, Prosper grew to become severely sick from abdomen pains, in response to her family members. She was airlifted to what was then Jackson Memorial Hospital, the place she underwent emergency surgical procedure and later used a colostomy bag for months. Her cousin Vickey Prospère stated Prosper’s lungs collapsed in the course of the sickness and he or she required intubation.
Being in that state, authorities “canceled” the deportation, her household stated. They directed Prosper to as a substitute attend common check-ins with immigration officers, just like individuals on parole.
For 20 years, Prosper reported in individual for the check-ins on the authorities’s places of work in Miramar, the household stated. However in the course of the pandemic, when authorities places of work shut down and glided by appointment solely, the check-ins modified from in-person to through electronic mail.
Prosper then emailed the immigration contacts as directed, Marie Prospère stated. Nevertheless, Prosper didn’t obtain an acknowledgement of her emails.
Constructing a life and enterprise
All through the years, Prosper bore seven kids, dropping one in the course of the pandemic, bought properties and automobiles, and constructed up her hair-and-nails enterprise.
On Fb, Prosper amassed 8,000 followers on a page that exhibits a mixture of enterprise promotions, private life updates and household photographs, hints at drama swirling, lottery video games she performed and inspirational quotes.
To make ends meet when the store was sluggish, Prosper additionally labored odd jobs, resembling a cargo driver.
Courtroom data in Broward County additionally present a number of prior civil and visitors issues, in addition to one other legal case from June that accuses Prosper of stalking. Particulars about that case should not obtainable, however Marie Prospère stated it entails a romantic entanglement. Prosper was decided to defend herself, the niece stated, and appeared ahead to an upcoming listening to on the lively case.
By way of all of it, Prosper stored up the constructive perspective and beneficiant spirit that drew many to her, the household stated. She was continually working, constructing her enterprise and caring for the children nonetheless at dwelling together with her.
But, as information unfold of ICE detentions, Prosper determined to remain nearer to dwelling. Vickey Prospère stated she would inform the cousin to remain off the roads to keep away from detention from a random roadside cease.
“She didn’t need to go nowhere,” Marie Prospère, the niece, stated. “She stayed dwelling on a regular basis. She didn’t need to threat one thing taking place and getting deported — or going via this proper right here.”
Nevertheless, they didn’t talk about what to do if deportation have been to happen.
“We didn’t have a plan,” Vickey Prospère stated. “I’m dumbfounded,” she stated. “I’m hoping for deportation deferred. A minimum of enable her to go in entrance of a decide.”
“It places a burden on the household,” Vickey Prospère added. “She had her personal little enterprise, making her cash, caring for her youngsters. However now you snatch her away — It’s an emotional burden, it’s a monetary burden.”
ICE on the again door
In 2025, Prosper was on the passenger facet of a cargo automobile when ICE pulled it over. They requested if she was an immigrant, had a inexperienced card or an A quantity. After she advised them she didn’t know the quantity off the highest of my head and that she has principally lived all her life, they let her go.
This time, the federal government got here for her instantly in what the ICE spokesperson referred to as a targeted enforcement operation due to the prevailing deportation order.
In accordance with Prospère, who spoke together with her aunt by cellphone from the detention heart, the brokers exterior Prosper’s salon door that Monday night time allegedly refused to offer again the I.D. card to her son.
The brokers insisted Prosper come to the door for it, in response to the niece. When Prosper went, they allegedly grabbed her by the wrist or hand and pulled her out of the store.
The Prospères stated the brokers’ actions amounted to a “trick,” they referred to as it, to lure Sirena exterior the store.
The Haitian Occasions emailed ICE asking for a response to the household’s allegations. The ICE spokesperson wrote again that when ICE officers approached Prosper, they recognized themselves as legislation enforcement and have been visibly identifiable by their ICE badges and agency-identifying patches. Prosper bodily resisted officers’ efforts to take her into custody, in response to the ICE account.
“Legal unlawful aliens should not welcome within the U.S. We’ll discover you, we’ll arrest you, and we’ll deport you,” the company spokesperson stated.
“She’s going to stay in ICE custody pending her elimination from the nation.”
Family members say Prosper was scheduled for deportation Thursday. As of this writing, she was nonetheless listed as being held within the Louisiana deportation jail.
Relations questioned whether or not an outdoor tip was submitted. Nevertheless, the precise circumstances that prompted ICE’s enforcement motion stay unconfirmed.
Vickey Prospère stated the household can be now exploring placing a maintain on the upcoming deportation. A key query they could discover is the selection of a return nation, they stated, since Prosper was not born in Haiti.
“A variety of our household handed away,” stated Marie Prospère, referring to any distant family members who could also be left in Saint-Louis du Nord. “They wouldn’t even know her.”
ICE didn’t present a solution to the query concerning the selection of return nation. Nevertheless, attorneys have advised The Haitian Occasions beforehand that folks dealing with deportation could get an opportunity to decide on a rustic in the course of the preliminary deportation listening to. If the deportee doesn’t say, Homeland Safety can then select a location primarily based on the dad and mom’ nation of origin.
Tuesday, the household held the vigil in hopes of bringing consideration to Prosper’s case.
Round these efforts, the household is grappling with caring for the children left behind, ensuring they’ve meals and clothes and going to high school. The three boys are actually dwelling with Prospère, who has three kids of her personal, because the household seems to be into guardianship choices.
“My factor is, when y’all do that — take a mom away from her little one — and the children are staying with a member of the family, someone like me,” stated Marie Prospère, explaining that she has three of her personal, “So that you’re telling me if I can’t afford sure stuff, I gotta go apply for welfare.
“Doesn’t that imply the US of America has to deal with the kid, once more,” she requested. “Wouldn’t or not it’s cheaper to go away the dad or mum right here to deal with the kid?”
The submit Bahamas-born mom delivered to Florida as toddler faces deportation to Haiti appeared first on The Haitian Occasions.