Haitians

The landing Monday morning comes as the Caribbean nation is struggling with a surge of gang violence that has killed several thousand people in recent years and left hundreds of thousands homeless in the country’s capital.

The administration repatriated about 50 Haitians on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence.

Haiti is a country in crisis. Freelance photojournalist Octavio Jones, who's worked with WUSF and NPR, was on the ground there earlier this week and documented what he saw.

The arrests include Frederick Joseph Bergmann Jr. of Tampa.

The Homeland Security Task Force - Southeast said they have stopped or removed more than 1,300 refugees at sea or from Dry Tortugas National Park and other areas of the Florida Keys since Dec. 30 and urged family members of Cubans and Haitians thinking of making their way to the U.S. to dissuade such efforts.

Federal officials became overwhelmed as nearly 500 Cuban migrants landed in or near the Keys between Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, before 100 Haitians in a sailboat arrived in Key Largo on Tuesday. Arrivals forced Dry Tortugas National Park to close.

Missionary groups like Christian Aid Ministries, hit by a gang abduction in Haiti over the weekend, say they won't be intimidated — but they have little protection.