United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened mass deportations of undocumented migrants once his second term begins.

As he prepares to fulfil his campaign promise, it’s important to understand how these types of mass deportations are carried out. The Dominican Republic (DR) offers a cautionary tale.

Since the beginning of October 2024, Dominican President Luis Abinader Corona has committed to deporting 10,000 Haitians a week. The Organization of International Migration registered 27,000 Haitians had been deported from the DR by the end of October, reaching 40,000 by Nov. 18.

Haitians represent the largest migrant community in the DR because Haiti and the DR share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

According to the latest Dominican National Survey of Immigration conducted in 2017, 497,825 Haitian migrants live in the DR, representing 4.9 per cent of the total population. Assuming that these numbers haven’t changed drastically, 40,000 deportations amount to a significant proportion of the Haitian population in the DR.

During my research visit of July 2024, it was clear that the Dominican army, police and migration officers had been given deportation targets long before the president’s October announcement.

I spoke to people who said migration raids became more violent and arbitrary when the deadline approached and targets had not been met.

In border areas, I was told about deported Haitians who were extorted by army officers and others they had paid to be smuggled back into the DR, only to be deported once again. In addition to extortion, migrants were also subjected to violence in their attempts to return to the DR.

The pressure to meet the president’s targets is propelling the current wave of deportations without regard to either domestic or international law.

According to Dominican law, children, pregnant and lactating migrant women should not be deported. However, civil society........

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