Mounted police round-up illegal migrants who cross US border
POLICE on horseback wielding lassos have been deployed to stop thousands of Haitian migrants from illegally crossing the Rio Grande into America.
Some 16,000 mostly Haitian migrants have crossed into the Texas city of Del Rio from Mexico in the past fortnight, making the journey after hearing rumours that they would be allowed to enter the United States.
Many migrants camped on the US side had been going back to Mexico to pick up basic supplies including food, water and nappies, but some were blocked and grabbed by mounted officials as they tried to return.
As well as shutting the bridge to legitimate cross-border traffic, officials on both sides of the waterway have sealed off the illegal crossing point. Agents on horseback have been seen chasing people along the riverbank, in a tactic campaigners have called “horrifying”.
“We’re trapped,” said Joncito Jean, 37, who had spent three days sleeping on a sheet on the ground with his wife and two children, aged three and four.
“There are no humane conditions. We have to break out to buy water.”
Alix Desulme, chairman of the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network, said: “These people should be protected, not attacked. It is horrifying and must stop.”
A White House spokesman said that footage appearing to show border patrol agents using whips against Haitian migrants was unacceptable and not appropriate. More than 320 migrants were flown to Port-au-prince, Haiti’s capital, on three flights on Sunday.