BELLADERE, Haiti, Feb 11, (AP): A crowd of 500 descended from dusty trucks on a recent morning and shuffled through a tiny gap in a border gate separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic. They were the first deportees of the day, some still clad in work clothes and others barefoot as they lined up for food, water and medical care in the Haitian border city of Belladère before mulling their next move.

Under a broiling sun, the migrants recounted what they said were mounting abuses by Dominican officials after President Luis Abinader ordered them in October to start deporting at least 10,000 immigrants a week under a harsh new policy widely criticized by civil organizations. "They broke down my door at 4 in the morning,” said Odelyn St. Fleur, who had worked as a mason in the Dominican Republic for two decades.

He had been sleeping next to his wife and 7-year-old son. The number of alleged human rights violations ranging from unauthorized home raids to racial profiling to deporting breastfeeding mothers and unaccompanied minors is surging as officials ramp up deportations to Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

More than a quarter million people were deported last year, and more than 31,200 in January alone. "The situation has reached a critical point,” said Roudy Joseph, an activist who accused officials of ignoring due process during arrests. "Every day, children are left abandoned at schools.” On a recent afternoon, dozens of vendors lined up on either side of the men, women and unaccompanied children who marched single file into Belladère after being deported

. The men tried to sell them jeans, water, SIM cards and illegal trips back to the Dominican Republic: "Would you like to pass through? I’ll wait for you on the other side,” they whispered in Creole. Despite the crackdown, many re-enter the Dominican Republic, exposing a broken system.

That afternoon marked the second time Jimmy Milien, a 32-year-old floor installer, was deported. He was arrested in the capital, Santo Domingo, in 2024 and again in mid-January when authorities boarded a public bus and pointed at him. "Damn devil Haitian, get off,” he recalled them saying before they even asked for documents. He left behind his wife and two children, ages 3 and 12, and doesn’t know when he’ll see them again.