Migrants began flowing back into the Mexican side of the southern border on Monday from Del Rio, Texas as the Department of Homeland Secur...
Migrants began flowing back into the Mexican side of the southern border on Monday from Del Rio, Texas as the Department of Homeland Security plans to ramp up deportation flights to seven per day.
Video emerged Monday of scores of mostly Haitian migrants making the trek back across the Rio Grande River to Mexico from the U.S after three flights full of migrants from the U.S. landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Sunday.
Up to 15,000 migrants set up camp under and around the Del Rio International Bridge, using a dam area to cross between the Mexico and U.S. side of the border.
The influx of immigrants came after the Biden administration in February paused deportation flights to Haiti and also comes as a result of recent earthquake and president's assassination.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that he will visit the southern border, as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who was put in charge of the border crisis, have remained silent on the recent developments of mass migration among Haitians.
'I will be traveling to the border myself,' Mayorkas told CNN, adding he speaks regularly with the White House and President Joe Biden about the issue.
Mayorkas also said he has been briefed on the situation 'multiple times' – however, he did not specify on Sunday when he will be taking his trip to the border.
The Haitian migration crisis is exacerbated by those who left Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to settle in South and Central America who are now desperate to leave there due to the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse. At that time many flew to Ecuador where there's no visa requirements – then proliferated to Brazil and Chile.
They are now leaving there and making their way up to Mexico anyway they can.
Images from Del Rio, Texas began emerging over the weekend where thousands of mostly Haitian migrants used a dam to cross between Mexico and the U.S. On Sunday, three removal flights of migrants arrived back in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
The developing crisis forced the Biden administration to close six crossing points along the border and send in at least 400 troops to help stop the flow and round up migrants for deportation.
Video emerged Monday of scores of mostly Haitian migrants returning to the Mexico side of the Rio Grande River crossing as DHS accelerates deportations
Migrants streamed back across the Rio Grande River from Del Rio, Teas to Acuna, Mexico using a rope to guide them across the water
Migrants are pictured on the banks of the Rio Grande River on Sunday as DHS ramps up removal flight efforts and attempts to block asylum-seekers from getting to the U.S. through the Mexico border near Del Rio
Migrants began flowing back into the Mexican side of the southern border on Monday from Del Rio, Texas as the Department of Homeland Security plans to ramp up deportation flights to seven per day
Two migrants with a child who are seeking asylum in the U.S. grabs onto a rope to guide them through while crossing the Rio Grande river into Mexico
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have not addressed the latest developments at the southern border – and neither have visited the Rio Grande Valley, where they majority of the illegal crossings are taking place. Here Haitian migrants cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the U.S. on Sunday
After Border Patrol cracked down on the dam crossing, migrants had to find other ways to cross between the U.S. and Mexico – like the Haitian immigrants walking through waist-high water in the Rio Grande
The massive encampment of migrants, believed to include up to 15,000 people, has brought up several issues, including health concerns in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic as Mayorkas revealed they are not vaccinating migrants.
'We certainly are experiencing a challenging situation, but we are surging resources and we have a multi-pronged approach to this,' Mayorkas said on Sunday.
Mayorkas also defended the administration's decision to expel the Haitian migrants while welcoming in 50,000 Afghan refugees for resettlement in the U.S. after Biden's bungled troops withdrawal from Afghanistan last month.
'This is who we are as a country. We stand up for the people who stood up for us,' Mayorkas said on Sunday. 'We are providing refuge to individuals who assisted us in combat in Afghanistan. We are providing refuge to vulnerable women, journalists, young kids. This is one of our greatest traditions as a country. We have committed relief to those individuals, and we are delivering it. And we are delivering it while securing the safety of the American public.'
An airplane chartered to transport people to Haiti prepares to board passengers at the San Antonio International Airport as U.S. authorities accelerate the removal of migrants at the border with Mexico on Monday
The influx of immigrants came after the Biden administration in February paused deportation flights to Haiti and also comes as a result of recent earthquake and president's assassination
Two planes are pictured Monday preparing to leave from San Antonio to transport migrants to Haiti in new goal to get seven flights of migrants removed each day
Removal flights began over the weekend, with three planes full of Haitians who fled to the U.S. landing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Sunday
When asked whether there's a 'contradiction' in the treatment of Haitians, who had fled after a devastating earthquake and the assassination of the Haitian president, versus Afghan refugees, Mayorkas said, 'Not at all.'
'Those two processes are quite different,' he insisted. 'We are bringing in Afghan nationals by air after they have been screened and vetted. That is a safe, orderly, and humane process.'
'That is quite different than illegal entry in between ports of entry in a time of pandemic when we have been quite clear, explicit, for months now that that is not the way to reach the United States. And it will not succeed,' Mayorkas said.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that he will visit the southern border as 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants set up camp near a bridge, he did not specify to CNN's Jim Acosta (left) when he would visit the border as DHS ramps up deportation efforts
Haitian migrants set up a massive makeshift camp under the Del Rio International Bridge in just the last weeks, with the number swelling from around 400 to 14,534 in just one week, according to Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano.
DHS revealed over the weekend that it would ramp up and accelerate its removal efforts of migrants as Biden continues to face widespread criticism for his handling of the humanitarian and national security crisis at the southern border.
Biden and Harris have not visited the U.S. side of the Rio Grande Valley – where the majority of the migration crisis has taken place.
Neither the president or vice president have addressed the latest developments or the new DHS strategy to deport these migrants.
Mayorkas told reporters Sunday that the flights to Haiti had started earlier in the day and would continue daily. His agency previously said it was accelerating repatriations to Haiti and sending more border agents to Del Rio, where conditions under the bridge have grown increasingly squalid.
But in his brief remarks, Mayorkas stressed that the Haitian government had 'communicated quite clearly to us its ability to receive the flights' and said the U.S. government is providing funding to Haiti to help without specifying the amount.
DHS is aiming to get six or seven flights of Haitian migrants out of the country and back to their homeland each day.
Health workers and U.S. Border Patrol officers carry a migrant seeking asylum in the U.S. on a stretcher near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S
U.S. Border Patrol officers assist a migrant seeking asylum in the U.S. near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S
DHS is also prompting Customs and Border Protection to increase manpower and improve conditions for those at camps along the border.
Haitian migrants are pleading with Biden not to deport them after being stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border – even as Border Patrol had more than 300 returned home on the first flights out on Sunday. Pictured: A border patrol agent assists a migrant in Texas
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Saturday 'arrangements have already been made' to receive those who were being returned to the Caribbean nation.
'We have no choice at this point but to increase repatriation flights,' Mayorkas said, adding the flights would take migrants either to Haiti or 'possibly other countries.'
A Haitian immigration official, who was not authorized to speak to media, said the country was not prepared for an influx of possibly thousands of returning migrants.
Border agents on horseback chased down migrants on Sunday who were illegally crossing the border into the U.S. to try and join the camp in the isolated Texas town after they said the 'border is closed'.
Haitian migrants are pleading with Biden not to deport them after being stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border – even as Border Patrol had more than 300 returned home on the first flights out on Sunday.
U.S. border patrol officers on horseback prevent migrants from reaching the U.s. as they try to return to their camp after having crossed from the U.S. into Mexico to buy food on Sunday
Border Patrol agents on horseback tried to round up and stop Haitian migrants from stepping onto U.S. soil as they crossed the Rio Grande River near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge on Sunday to try and join the encampment
A satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows thousands of migrants seeking refuge from the sun underneath the Del Rio International Bridge, as other people can be seen wading across the Rio Grande River at the Mexico-U.S. border on Saturday
On Saturday, the DHS announced it moved about 2,000 of the migrants from the encampment in Del Rio, which closed down the bridge and other roads, to other locations for processing and possible removal from the U.S.
The statement said it would have 400 Border Patrol agents and officers in the area by Monday morning and would send more if necessary.
By Sunday, nearly 330 Haitians were deported to Port-au-Prince – the capital city of Haiti, on three flights from the U.S.
A U.S. official revealed to the AP on Friday that they would likely send five to eight flights of migrants out per day in the coming week.
Migrants were continuing to cross the Rio Grande river over the weekend despite heightened security on the U.S. side that included horse-mounted agents, one of whom charged his horse to block migrants and swung what looked like a lariat at a person trying to climb up the U.S. embankment from the water.
At least 100 Haitians, including families with small children, crossed back into Mexico from under the bridge on Sunday evening, gripping a yellow rope stretched across the river that had risen to chest level.
Scores of people were pictured wading back and forth across the Rio Grande, re-entering Mexico to purchase water, food and diapers in Ciudad Acuña before returning to the Texas encampment under and near a bridge in the border city of Del Rio.
Many carried backpacks and plastic bags of belongings, and several people told Reuters they planned to stay in Mexico for now because they did not want to be returned to Haiti.
The announcement of removal flights came in response to the sudden arrival of Haitians in Del Rio, roughly 145 miles west of San Antonio, after wading through the Rio Grande. The town sits on a relatively remote stretch of border that lacks capacity to hold and process such large numbers of people who sought to petition the United States for entry and to escape poverty and gang violence in their own country.
At one point, the Associated Press reports, the site was dotted with tents and tarps strung up on reeds as thousands waited to cross into the country.
The U.S. took another step on Sunday to quell the influx, blocking entry of migrants at the Mexican border.
An unnamed Mexican police officer on the Mexican side of the border said migrants will not be allowed to cross anymore even as reporters witnessed Haitian immigrants continuing to cross the border.
About a dozen Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles lined up near the bridge and river where Haitians have been crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas for three weeks. Yellow police tape was being used to block them from using a small dam to walk into the U.S.
On Saturday, Border Patrol agents on horseback began rounding up some of the migrants.
A day earlier, about 500 Haitians headed towards the U.S. border were ordered off buses by Mexican immigration authorities in the northern state of Tamaulipas, and some tried to continue the journey on foot.
Immigration agents and National Guard officers stopped the buses at a highway checkpoint near the town of San Fernando, about 120 miles south of the Texas border, the state government said in a press release.
Mexico has turned back Haitian migrants trying to walk through southern Mexico. But 8,000 to 12,000 people, mainly Haitians, have already walked across the Rio Grande river. Some of those migrants may have already been in northern Mexico for some time.
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