The Donald Trump administration has initiated its first deportation procedures for Haitian immigrants after terminating humanitarian protection measures for an estimated 350,000 Haitians residing in the United States.

The U.S. daily The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 20th local time that a deportation flight from the U.S. carrying 170 Haitian immigrants aged 19 to 71 landed that day in Cap-Haïtien on Haiti's northern coast.

Many of these individuals had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the past three weeks, and some had recently lost their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), WP reported.

TPS is a program that allows immigrants from countries experiencing emergency situations, such as armed conflict or natural disasters, to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds.

While stays through TPS are limited to a maximum of 18 months, many immigrants have frequently renewed their TPS status, effectively settling in the U.S.

Taking issue with this, the Trump administration attempted earlier this year to terminate TPS for several countries, including Haiti.

Although the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia subsequently put the brakes on the Trump administration's push to end TPS, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the decision to terminate TPS was not subject to judicial review, effectively siding with the administration.

As a result, approximately 350,000 Haitian immigrants in the U.S. face the threat of forced deportation, according to WP.

While some of them have separate asylum application procedures underway and can continue to stay in the U.S., the vast majority could become targets for ICE crackdowns and deportations.

The human rights organization Human Rights First stated, "We express serious concern over the current administration's intentional stripping of immigrants' legal residency status and its moves to deliberately deport them to dangerous regions."

In fact, Haiti is currently experiencing extreme turmoil due to gang violence and other factors, with an estimated 1.4 million Haitians reportedly living as displaced persons within their own country.

The Trump administration has also reportedly initiated procedures to forcibly deport immigrants within the U.S. to Liberia in West Africa.

A spokesperson for the Liberian government stated that a U.S. flight carrying forcibly deported immigrants arrived in the country that day.