After nearly three decades in South Florida, 32-year-old Edrisse Michelin now wakes up in a country he does not feel is home. “I still don’t feel like I’m home. I still feel like I’m just roaming. I feel uneasy,” he said from Haiti.
Edrisse Michelin moved to South Florida from Haiti when he was 3 years old. He grew up in Miami, graduated from South Ridge High School and attended Miami Dade College. He built a career as a licensed realtor and insurance broker and lived in the U.S. as a permanent resident.
Then he made a decision that changed everything. “I lived in a country 30 years, I never got in trouble. But I made a mistake, my morals became corrupted,” he said.
Edrisse Michelin was convicted of obtaining an illegal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in the summer of 2020. He served 25 months in federal prison, followed by nine months in ICE custody. Earlier this month, he was deported to Haiti on a flight with about 120 people on board. He said the trip was painful and dehumanizing.
“Your feet are shackled together, your ankles are getting cut up, your hands are shackled together,” he recalled. “They’re telling you, ‘If there’s a plane crash, you’re gonna grab this from here and put this on your face.’ How? How are we gonna do that?”
When the plane landed in Cap-Haïtien, he said those on board were given $100 and released to family members. His wife, Iyamille Michelin, an American citizen, was waiting for him. “There’s people that left only two, three years ago that are afraid to come here, and she’s here,” he said.
Since then, the couple has been walking the streets, trying to mentally accept that Haiti is now home. They took a HERO Client Rescue helicopter to Port-au-Prince and then a bus from there to reach Petit-Goâve, where some of his family lives. Edrisse Michelin knows that makes their situation very different from many others.
“Now that I’m here, you know, to my country where my flag is, the people are wonderful, the people work hard,” he said. “But they’re trying to overcome obstacles, and I’m here trying to overcome obstacles as well, and they haven’t quite fully understood how to overcome these obstacles, and they’ve been living here their whole life.”
He said space and opportunity are limited, and he worries about what will happen to others who could soon join him. Temporary Protected Status for more than 330,000 Haitians living in the U.S. is scheduled to end on Feb. 3. Without another form of immigration relief, many may face the same fate.
“What I’m concerned about with so many people coming, it’s very limited here,” he said. “So if you’re gonna be dropping tens of thousands of people in one location and these people live all over the country, but they’re not going to be able to get home. There’s bandits blocking the road in certain areas.”
Even as a Haitian-born man, he is still struggling with language and culture.
“I speak a little bit of Creole and I’m struggling. I’m struggling. I’m not gonna lie to you. I’m struggling,” he said.
The Michelins are trying to make sense of their new life while staying connected to the outside world. They are chronicling their adventure and daily challenges on Instagram, sharing videos, photos and reflections on their page, @iyamille_michelin, hoping their story helps other mixed-status families understand what deportation can really look like. They also have a GoFundMe page started in an effort to recover and rebuild.
The couple has eight children between them. Edrisse Michelin said he has not been able to see his kids in years. Their hope now is to secure a visa to another country where they can reunite as a family.
But with few countries currently accepting visa applications from Haitians, the couple remains in limbo, trying to figure out their next move from a place that feels both like their homeland and a foreign land at the same time.
