A Haitian migrant has been accused of a fatal beating at a Florida petrol station - a violent attack U.S. President Donald Trump seized on to argue for stricter immigration policies.
Rolbert Joachin is charged with homicide after he allegedly struck a woman repeatedly with a hammer and killed her on April 3, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Trump shared a graphic video of the incident and reiterated his calls to end deportation protections for Haitian migrants.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's attempt to eliminate deportation protections for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, who are allowed to live and work in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), in February.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the video of the slaying was one of the most vicious things you will ever see and urged that this one killing should be enough for judges to stop impeding my Administration's Immigration Policies.
The video, which was also shared online by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), shows a man striking a woman in the head with an object before she falls backwards onto the pavement. He is seen hitting her six more times before walking away.
It's senseless. It's a video you can never unwatch, Micah McCombs, special agent in charge with Homeland Security Investigations, stated during a news conference on Friday.
Local police partnered with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to locate Joachin, who was arrested shortly after.
Joachin first entered the U.S. in August 2022, according to the DHS. A federal judge issued a final order of removal against him in 2022, but the Biden administration granted him TPS, which expired in 2024.
The TPS designation prevents deportations to countries deemed unsafe due to crises. The Trump administration has argued that TPS leads to illegal immigration and has been over-used.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a case about TPS for Haitians, the debate around the issues of immigration and TPS spans multiple countries facing crises.
DHS confirmed that Joachin will be deported regardless of the outcome of his case.
