Migrants continued to cross the US-Mexico border on Sunday, even as the first deportation flights took away hundreds of Haitians who were living under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
More than 14,000 Haitians have been camping in squalid conditions under the Del Rio International Bridge since last week awaiting arrest, leading the Biden administration to close a point of entry, deploy more agents border patrol and scramble eviction flights.
At the border, a dozen Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles lined up near the bridge, forcing migrants to wade through deeper water in search of other ways to cross the Rio Grande to in Texas.
Border patrol officers rode 1.5 miles from the original crossing point to find several hundred Haitian immigrants still crossing the river to the United States, who were sent to Camp Del Rio.
Border Patrol chief Raul L. Ortiz told The Associated Press on Sunday that 3,300 migrants had already been evacuated from the Del Rio camp to planes or detention centers, and he expected 3,000 of the roughly 12,600 remaining migrants are displaced during the day.
The first of three deportation flights carrying 145 people each took off from San Antonio to Port-au-Prince on Sunday and a US government official told The Associated Press there could be as many as eight flights a day .
The deportees, worried about what awaited them in their country of origin, received $ 100 and fed meals of rice, beans and chicken.
Ariel Henry, Prime Minister of Haiti, posted on twitter that he is concerned about the “extremely difficult” conditions at the border camp and said Haitians would be welcome.
“We want to reassure them that measures have already been taken to offer them a better reception on their return to the country and that they will not be left behind,” he said.
Haiti is recovering from a devastating earthquake last month and the government is in turmoil following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home the previous month.
Some Haitians said they did not want to go home.
“In Haiti, there is no security. The country is in a political crisis, â€Fabricio Jean, 38, who arrived in Texas with his wife and two daughters, told The Associated Press.
Many Haitians arriving at the US border came from South America where they fled after an earthquake in 2010, but failed to find employment.
The arrival of Haitians in Del Rio only fuels criticism surrounding President Biden’s management of immigration at the southern border.
When he took office in January, Biden began to reverse or abandon many of Trump’s immigration policies, leading many immigrants to Mexico and Central American countries to believe they would be the welcome to the United States.
Last month there were over 200,000 encounters with illegal immigrants – the second month in a row the number exceeded 200,000.
Figures for August show an increase of 317% from a year ago.
With post wires
