A man who declared on camera that he was not going back to Haiti is now in Haiti.
Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, a Haitian national and member of the Back Block Money Gang, was deported to Haiti on Sept. 10, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed. He had spent 19 months in federal custody after ICE arrested him in Mattapan, Massachusetts, on Jan. 22, 2025, just days after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The Arrest That Went Viral
The footage from that arrest spread quickly. With cameras rolling, Charles cursed Trump, shouted “Biden forever,” and insisted he had no intention of returning to Haiti. He appeared to believe that invoking the previous administration was some kind of protection.
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It was not. According to the ICE deportation of Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, DHS listed 17 convictions against him, including assault and battery on a public employee, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest, drug possession and distribution charges, carrying a dangerous weapon, ammunition possession without a firearm ID, and trespassing.
Markwayne Mullin on Why Charles Invoked Biden
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin did not leave the symbolism unaddressed. He said Charles praised Biden “because he knew that the Biden Administration’s open borders turned America into a paradise for criminals like him.”
Fox News reported that Charles remained combative even during the flight, which departed from Louisiana, directing profanity at Trump and his family during the trip. The bravado that played well on social media apparently did not quiet down once the plane was in the air.
A Removal Years in the Making
Charles had already lost his Temporary Protected Status before the convictions mounted. Nonetheless, he continued to move through Massachusetts courts as though federal immigration consequences were someone else’s problem.
The Trump administration’s response was straightforward: locate, arrest, and remove. No exceptions carved out for viral moments or political slogans.
The declaration that he was “not going back to Haiti” turned out to be a bet that American politics would override American law. For a time, between an administration sympathetic to TPS extensions and local jurisdictions slow to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, it almost looked like a reasonable wager. Then Sept. 10 arrived, and the flight manifest did not ask who he supported in the last election.
“Biden forever” was the slogan. Port-au-Prince was the destination.
