Bahamas-born mother brought to Florida as infant faces deportation to Haiti

At about 9 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14, Marie Prospère received an urgent phone call from her aunt Sirena Prosper. Several law enforcement officers had come to the back door of Prosper’s beauty salon in Pompano Beach, Fla., asking questions.

First, they asked her whose children were playing around near the shop, Royal Hands Salon on South Cypress Road. Prosper, who was closing up for the night, said the children were hers. They then asked to see Prosper’s I.D. 

Thinking they wanted proof the boys – ages 14, 12 and 10 – were hers, Prosper had one of them take the I.D. card to the agents outside. Then she noticed one wearing a top marked “Federal Agent.”

Prosper called her niece, who lived nearby.

“She was saying, ‘Get my I.D.’ and ‘close my door,’” Prospère recalls overhearing through the phone. “The next thing I heard was screaming and all kinds of ‘whoa.’ That’s when I left my house and I went over there.”

About five minutes later, Prospère arrived at the shop. She saw three men in face coverings and one without, all wearing tops marked “GEO.” She had heard of GEO, the privately-owned prison facilities company whose jails U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) contracts to detain immigrants.

Inside one of the trucks was Prosper, sitting with the door wide open. The children, ages 14, 12 and 10, were watching. One was recording on his phone.

“She was crying, her kids were crying,” Prospère said. “She was just telling me to call a few people for her, to let them know.”

“Then I took the kids and I left.”

One week later, Prospère was back outside the Royal Hands Salon – this time with more family members for a prayer vigil demanding Prosper’s release from ICE custody. Currently being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, Sirena may be deported as soon as Sept. 24 and to Haiti — a country they say she has never known since she was born in the Bahamas.

Meanwhile, her relatives say, they are scrambling to care for Prosper’s three youngest children.

“We are trying to get Sirena home and bring her back to her kids,” said Alexandre “Baby” Francois, another cousin. “She’s a loving mother, a loving daughter and a loving hairdresser. 

“Get Sirena home.”

A detention 25 years coming

Prosper, a mother of seven and grandmother of three, is in deportation proceedings because of an armed burglary conviction from 25 years ago, her family and ICE say. In an email to The Haitian Times, ICE said an immigration judge issued a final order of removal for Prosper on January 9, 2002, and they decided to arrest her now because of what they described as her “extensive criminal record.”

Tracing Prosper’s path with immigration over two decades highlights many pitfalls communities face as the Trump administration carries out its mass deportation agenda. For the most part, the plight of recently-arrived Haitians who lost temporary protected status (TPS) has received much attention regarding the Haitian community as an ICE target. However, of the 3,600 Haitians arrested since January 2025 to date include people of various statuses whose permission to stay in the U.S. their families thought had long been settled.

Immigration law experts have previously told The Haitian Times that final deportation orders remain active and may be executed at any time, unless an affected person applies for and obtains a formal reversal. They say even if an immigration judge grants a stay of removal, which halts the deportation process, the order stands. 

To Frandley Julien, a South Florida-based immigration attorney who does not represent Prosper or know the case, the detention underscores the Trump administration’s disregard for the impact on families.

“This immigration system needs to take into account the balance of equities a little bit more,” Julien said. 

“Although someone may have a removal order, when you consider the balance of equities, clearly this woman is a net contributor to American society,” he added. “Removing her not only hurts the family, but it does not resolve any issue for society at large.”

Haitian ICE arrests mirrors nationwide surge

In recent months alone, ICE arrested more than 50,000 people each in July and August, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Researchers with the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA have found that in Florida this year, immigration agents have detained more than 5,000 people per day. 

Between January and August, the latest period for which data is available, immigration arrests of Haitians surged to 1,803 Haitians – including a spike of 413 in July alone. The year’s total represents about 34% of the total 5,295 arrested since October 2022. The overall rise also reflects widespread reports of ICE activity in Springfield, Ohio and numerous cities with a large concentration of Haitians. 

As far as deportation figures, Haiti’s National Office of Migration reported more than 400 people have been deported from the U.S. since July.

From Freeport to ICE check-ins

In the late 1970s, Prosper’s parents migrated from Saint-Louis du-Nord on Haiti’s northwest coast to the Bahamas. Her mother, who was pregnant with Prosper at the time, gave birth to her in Freeport – a town on Grand Bahama.

Six months after that, the family made their way to Florida with baby Sirena.

When Prosper was about 20 years old, according to Broward County court records, she was charged in 1998 with armed burglary. Available digital records do not provide details of the arrests, but according to Marie Prospère, her aunt had gotten into a fight with another woman inside a home Prosper was not supposed to be in. In any case, Prosper was convicted, then sentenced to serve three years in prison. 

As is common when a non-citizen is convicted of a felony, judges include an immigration consequence. In this case, an immigration judge issued the 2002 order for deportation, a civil matter.

As her prison release date neared, Prosper became severely ill from stomach pains, according to her relatives. She was airlifted to what was then Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery and later used a colostomy bag for months. Her cousin Vickey Prospère said Prosper’s lungs collapsed during the illness and she required intubation.

Being in that state, authorities “canceled” the deportation, her family said. They directed Prosper to instead attend regular check-ins with immigration officers, similar to people on parole. 

For 20 years, Prosper reported in person for the check-ins at the government’s offices in Miramar, the family said. But during the pandemic, when government offices shut down and went by appointment only, the check-ins changed from in-person to via email. 

Prosper then emailed the immigration contacts as directed, Marie Prospère said. However, Prosper did not receive an acknowledgement of her emails.

Building a life and business

Throughout the years, Prosper bore seven children, losing one during the pandemic, purchased homes and vehicles, and built up her hair-and-nails business. 

On Facebook, Prosper amassed 8,000 followers on a page that shows a mix of business promotions, personal life updates and family photos, hints at drama swirling, lottery games she played and inspirational quotes.

To make ends meet when the shop was slow, Prosper also worked odd jobs, such as a cargo driver. 

Court records in Broward County also show several prior civil and traffic matters, as well as another criminal case from June that accuses Prosper of stalking. Details about that case are not available, but Marie Prospère said it involves a romantic entanglement. Prosper was determined to defend herself, the niece said, and looked forward to an upcoming hearing on the active case.

Through it all, Prosper kept up the positive attitude and generous spirit that drew many to her, the family said. She was constantly working, building her business and taking care of the kids still at home with her.

Yet, as news spread of ICE detentions, Prosper decided to stay closer to home. Vickey Prospère said she would tell the cousin to stay off the roads to avoid detention from a random roadside stop. 

“She didn’t want to go nowhere,” Marie Prospère, the niece, said. “She stayed home all the time. She didn’t want to risk something happening and getting deported — or going through this right here.”

However, they did not discuss what to do if deportation were to occur. 

“We did not have a plan,” Vickey Prospère said. “I’m dumbfounded,” she said. “I’m hoping for deportation deferred. At least allow her to go in front of a judge.”

“It puts a burden on the family,” Vickey Prospère added. “She had her own little business, making her money, taking care of her kids. But now you snatch her away — It’s an emotional burden, it’s a financial burden.”

ICE at the back door

In 2025, Prosper was on the passenger side of a cargo vehicle when ICE pulled it over. They asked if she was an immigrant, had a green card or an A number. After she told them she did not know the number off the top of my head and that she has basically lived all her life, they let her go.

This time, the government came for her directly in what the ICE spokesperson called a targeted enforcement operation because of the existing deportation order.

According to Prospère, who spoke with her aunt by phone from the detention center, the agents outside Prosper’s salon door that Monday night allegedly refused to give back the I.D. card to her son. 

The agents insisted Prosper come to the door for it, according to the niece. When Prosper went, they allegedly grabbed her by the wrist or hand and pulled her out of the shop.

The Prospères said the agents’ actions amounted to a “trick,” they called it, to lure Sirena outside the shop.

The Haitian Times emailed ICE asking for a response to the family’s allegations. The ICE spokesperson wrote back that when ICE officers approached Prosper, they identified themselves as law enforcement and were visibly identifiable by their ICE badges and agency-identifying patches. Prosper physically resisted officers’ efforts to take her into custody, according to the ICE account. 

“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S. We will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you,” the agency spokesperson said.

“She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal from the country.”

Relatives say Prosper was scheduled for deportation Thursday. As of this writing, she was still listed as being held in the Louisiana deportation jail.

Family members questioned whether an outside tip was submitted. However, the exact circumstances that prompted ICE’s enforcement action remain unconfirmed. 

Vickey Prospère said the family is also now exploring putting a hold on the impending deportation. A key question they might explore is the choice of a return country, they said, since Prosper was not born in Haiti.

“A lot of our family passed away,” said Marie Prospère, referring to any distant relatives who may be left in Saint-Louis du Nord. “They wouldn’t even know her.”

ICE did not provide an answer to the question about the choice of return country. However, attorneys have told The Haitian Times previously that people facing deportation may get a chance to choose a country during the initial deportation hearing. If the deportee does not say, Homeland Security can then choose a location based on the parents’ country of origin.

Tuesday, the family held the vigil in hopes of bringing attention to Prosper’s case.

Around these efforts, the family is grappling with caring for the kids left behind, making sure they have food and clothing and going to school. The three boys are now living with Prospère, who has three children of her own, as the family looks into guardianship options.

“My thing is, when y’all do this — take a mother away from her child — and the kids are staying with a family member, somebody like me,” said Marie Prospère, explaining that she has three of her own, “So you’re telling me if I can’t afford certain stuff, I gotta go apply for welfare. 

“Doesn’t that mean the United States of America has to take care of the child, again,” she asked. “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to leave the parent here to take care of the child?”

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