When thousands of Haitian nationals embarked on the treacherous journey to the US border through South America, they set off with hopes of...
When thousands of Haitian nationals embarked on the treacherous journey to the US border through South America, they set off with hopes of finding better living conditions than the ones they left behind at ramshackle refugee camps in Chile.
But when the massive migrant caravan crossed the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas earlier this month, they found themselves going from bad to worse, with 15,000 of them being forced to take shelter under a bridge in dirty makeshift tents in 100-degree heat.
They'd soon be dealt another cruel blow, as the majority are now facing deportation to their impoverished island homeland, where many of them have not lived for several years.
We learned that many of the Haitians who made the trek to the US border were actually living in Brazil and the capital city of Santiago, Chile, where they were placed in shanty migrant camps after being granted asylum years ago.
The settlements, made up of small wooden shacks with tin roofs, aren't far off from the conditions they faced in their homeland, but are now better than the squalid encampments they are living in in the US.
This is one of the Haitian refugees camps in Santiago, Chile, where many of the 15,000 migrants camping under a bridge in Texas were living before setting off to the US border
Many Haitians desperate to leave their impoverished island country began to look to South America as a haven following the 2010 earthquake and have settled in cities such as Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil over the years
DailyMail.com has learned that the majority of Haitians in Del Rio, Texas had been living in Chile for the past five or six years as refugees. Pictured: A Haitian woman helps her son walk through a migrant camp in Santiago on September 22
The settlements, made up of small wooden shacks with tin roofs, aren't far off from the conditions they faced in their homeland, but are still better than the squalid encampments they are staying in now in the US
Many Haitians have already lived outside their country for years after fleeing the Caribbean island after the 2010 earthquake.
About 150,000 Haitians went to Chile from 2014 to 2018, many on charter flights to qualify for a visa, and found work as street vendors, janitors and construction workers. They lived largely in marginalized neighborhoods of the capital and suffered discrimination.
In April, a stricter immigration law took effect, and the Chilean government started massive aerial deportations.
Since then, more Haitians have been moving north through South America and Central America to border cities in Mexico, before entering the United States and claiming asylum.
In Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, dozens of Chilean identity cards litter the ground, all bearing distinctly non-Hispanic names. There is Prosper Pierre for instance, or Linode Lafleur or Eddyson Jean-Charles. None of the cards carries a name such as Gonzalez or Muñoz or Rojas.
A closer look shows three telling letters - HTI - on the cards where they ask for the bearer's nationality. These are the discarded ID cards of Haitians who have turned up in Del Rio by the thousands.
Many of them haven't come from Port-au-Prince or Cap-Haïtien or any other city in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, but from Sao Paulo, Brazil or Santiago, Chile.
'As one put it to me, "I love Chile, it's 1,000 times better than Haiti," migration expert Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies told DailyMail.com. 'But I want to come to the United States, that's a million times better.'
Nearly 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants have assembled around and under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, a town of only 35,000 people
A makeshift border migrant camp is seen at daybreak along the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Wednesday
DailyMail.com has learned that the majority of Haitians in Del Rio have actually come from Chile or Brazil, where they have been living as refugees for years, and only set off for the US after Biden opened the borders. The migrants were stopped in Tapachula, Mexico after the Biden administration pressured Mexican authorities not to let them come further north, but were suddenly released on September 12. They headed to Ciudad Acuna, where they crossed the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas
Haitian girls are pictured in a makeshift encampment where tens of thousands hoping to enter the United States await under the international bridge in Del Rio
There are an estimated 150,000 Haitians in Chile and around 125,000 in Brazil - tiny fractions of the two million that live in the United States.
But as US immigration rules became tougher, people desperate to leave the impoverished island began to look to South America as a haven.
Bensman revealed that he has not met any Haitian in Del Rio or Acuna who has come directly from their Caribbean-island homeland.
'None of these Haitians are from Haiti. None of them. These Haitians are all from Chile and Brazil,' he said.
'When Biden got in, word went out and they decided, we're coming now. That was the decision point. I've interviewed 60 to 70 Haitians over the last year and it's always the same story – Joe Biden opened the border so we decided we could upgrade our lifestyle.
'I interviewed a guy an hour ago who said he was living in Brazil and making good money but he said he heard everyone was getting into America so he came.'
The options remaining for thousands of Haitian migrants straddling the Mexico-Texas border are narrowing as the United States government ramps up to an expected six expulsion flights to Haiti and Mexico began busing some away from the border
Migrants wait on the Rio Grande to cross to the United States, in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila state, Mexico on September 18
Thousands of Haitian migrants are seen in the makeshift camp under the Del Rio bridge in Texas Tuesday awaiting processing
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