According to the Mexican Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. officials moved about 2,000 people from a Texas border town overwhelmed by the influx of Haitians and other illegal immigrants to other immigration stations on Friday. ..
In a statement, the DHS said that such migration would continue, “to ensure that irregular migrants were quickly detained, processed and removed from the United States in accordance with U.S. law and policy.” Stated.
Some migrants seeking work and security come to the United States for weeks or months, but the numbers in Del Rio, Texas have received widespread attention and pose humanitarian and political challenges. Is very recent. Biden administration.
The DHS will move to Haiti and other destinations within the next 72 hours in response to illegal immigrants evacuating to increasingly poor conditions under the Del Rio International Bridge connecting Texas City and Ciudad Real Madrid, Mexico. He said he was accelerating the flight.
The DHS added that it is working with the countries where migrants have begun their journeys (many Haitians, countries such as Brazil and Chile) to accept migrants returning. Officials on both sides of the border said most of the migrants were Haitians.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in a series of posts posted on social media late Saturday, expressed solidarity with the masses of migrants at the border and “already has an arrangement” to warmly welcome those returning to the Caribbean. It’s happening. “
“I share their suffering and say they welcome the house,” he wrote.
According to DHS, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent 400 additional agents to the Del Rio sector within a few days. , 57 miles (92 km) east.
“We have reiterated that borders are not open and people should not make dangerous journeys,” a DHS spokesman told Reuters.
Bruno Lozano, the mayor of Del Rio, said in a video Saturday night that there are currently more than 14,000 illegal immigrants under the bridge.
Mexican police officers told illegal immigrants who were buying food in Ciudad Akunya on the American side of the river on Saturday morning when U.S. officials revealed that they were sending migrants back to their hometowns, according to Reuters witnesses. I started asking you to go back to. Immigrants insisted on the need for supplies, and police eventually forgave them.
Bad condition
On the Texas side, Haitians have joined Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguas under the Del Rio Bridge, where immigrants say their condition is deteriorating.
“I have urine and dung and I’m sleeping next to the trash,” said Venezuelan immigrant Michael Vargas, 30, who was camping for three days with his wife and two children.
According to Vargas, the ticket number is 16,000 and authorities are currently processing 9,800. He said the people were divided into three groups: single men, single women, and families.
Jeff June, a 27-year-old Haitian, said it took longer than an adult to process his family and laid young children on the ground in the heat of 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). I was one of the immigrants. June said his two sons, aged 1 and 10, became ill with symptoms like fever and a cold.
Two photos sent by migrants to Reuters at the camp show dozens of adults and children being squeezed together under a bridge, some sitting on cardboard or in soil stuffed with thin blankets. Spreading up. My belongings were piled up properly. There seems to be a tent made of reeds and wooden sticks in the background.
Illegal immigrants who usually arrive at the border and leave themselves to civil servants can claim asylum for fear of returning to their home country, causing lengthy court proceedings. The Trump administration rushed away from protection, claiming that many asylum claims were false.
A large public health order issued under the Trump administration at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known as Title 42, promptly expels most illegal immigrants without the opportunity to claim asylum. Will be done. President Joe Biden has exempted unaccompanied minors and his administration has not expelled most families, but maintains the rules.
The judge ruled on Thursday that the policy could not be applied to families, but the ruling did not come into force for two weeks and the Biden administration has appealed in court.
The mass expulsion of Haiti in Del Rio must offend immigrant advocates who say such a return is inhumane, given the situation in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The President of Haiti was assassinated in July, and a major earthquake and storm struck the country in August.
The Biden administration extended temporary deportation relief to about 150,000 Haitians in the United States earlier this year. The remedy does not apply to new arrivals. Deportation and expulsion are technically different — expulsion is much faster.
US officials have temporarily suspended their move to Haiti after the August 14 earthquake.
According to CBP data, the number of Haiti immigrants arriving at the US-Mexico border is steadily increasing this year, along with an overall increase in immigrants.
Many Haitians interviewed by Reuters said they used to live in South America but are now heading north because they couldn’t get legal status or struggled to get a decent job. .. Some told Reuters that they followed a route shared on WhatsApp to reach Del Rio.
More than 12 Haitians living in Tapachula, southern Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, told Reuters on Friday that the WhatsApp group’s message was about crossing the border.
Alexandra Ulmer and Christina Cook
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