Haitian National Found Guilty of Biting ICE Officers on Deportation Aircraft

SAN ANTONIO – A federal jury convicted a Haitian national in a federal court in San Antonio Tuesday for two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees and inflicting bodily injury and one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees involving physical contact.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were loading 112 Haitian nationals onto a contract aircraft in San Antonio bound for Port Au Prince, Haiti in September 2021, when a disturbance involving several individuals occurred in the middle section of the aircraft.  Jubenson Domenique was identified as the main instigator of the disturbance and a decision was made for three officers to remove him from the aircraft. 

During Domenique’s extraction from the aircraft, he bit the officers, breaking the skin and leaving teeth marks on all three.  Emergency Medical Services responded, and one officer was treated at a local hospital, provided prescriptions for medication and began treatment and testing for possible infections, including six months of HIV treatment.

Domenique faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of inflicting bodily injury and eight years in prison for the third count.

U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza of the Western District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Huerta for the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility made the announcement.

ICE is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Brown and Amy Hail are prosecuting the case.

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