Security guards stand watch as Haiti’s Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, center, talks with the Mexico’s Charge d’Affaires Jesus Cisneros after attending an event marking one year since the start of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in June 2025. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
United States immigration agents in Florida arrested businessman, doctor and former Haitian presidential hopeful Pierre Réginald Boulos in July 2025 over his alleged support of violent gangs in Haiti that the U.S. government has deemed terrorist groups. Boulos, arrested at his home in South Florida, is accused of being “engaged in a campaign of violence and gang support that contributed to Haiti’s destabilization,” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a July 21 statement.
Boulos was born in the U.S. but renounced his citizenship to run for president of Haiti in recent years. He then obtained U.S residency in 2024. Boulos, who previously has denied a flurry of corruption allegations, is the most well-known Haitian arrested to date under an immigration crackdown by the U.S. government. An attorney for Boulos could not be immediately reached for comment.
ICE said in its statement that Boulos also had failed to disclose in his residency application his involvement in the formation of a political party or that Haiti’s government had referred him for prosecution for misusing loans. ICE said the State Department “has determined that certain individuals with U.S. lawful permanent resident status have supported and collaborated with Haitian gang leaders connected to Viv Ansanm, a Haitian foreign terrorist organization.”
“The United States will not allow individuals to enjoy the benefits of legal status in our country while they are facilitating the actions of violent organizations or supporting criminal terrorist organizations abroad,” the statement said.
Boulos was being held at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami. He founded several businesses while in Haiti, where he served as president of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2019, he created the Third Way Movement, a political party that he said at the time served as a contrast to the “shameless elite and the unscrupulous politicians who are working to bog down the country and increase the suffering of the people.” The party said it would seek “a historic political compromise that would facilitate the negotiated departure from power” of then-President Jovenel Moïse. Boulos visited Haiti’s central region in August 2019 as he rallied for support. “I am part of the system that must be destroyed,” he was quoted as saying by Le Nouvelliste newspaper. “I know how to destroy it.”
Moïse served as president from 2017 until he was gunned down at his private residence in July 2021. Dozens of suspects were arrested, including 17 former Colombian soldiers who still are being interrogated by Haitian authorities. Court documents have stated that those involved in the plot included Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a pastor, doctor and failed businessman who envisioned himself as Haiti’s new leader. Elections have not been held since Moïse was killed.