Thousands of migrants slip into US
Livid Democrats slam ‘cruel’ process, Biden’s actions
Haitians have been freed into the U.S. on a “very, very large scale” in recent days, an official told the AP, as the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis is ripped in Congress — even from Democrats.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley joined others questioning the “cruel, the inhumane and flat out racist treatment” of Haitian migrants at the southern border.
“We cannot and we must not look away in this moment,” Pressley said Wednesday in D.C., describing the living conditions for those in Haiti as an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis” that needs a “humanitarian response.”
An official speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said thousands of refugees are slipping into the country — undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that the estimated 14,000 in the border camp faced immediate expulsion to Haiti.
Many have been released with notices to appear at an immigration office within 60 days.
The releases come despite a massive effort to expel Haitians on flights under pandemic-related authority that denies migrants a chance to seek asylum. A third U.S. official not authorized to discuss operations said there were seven daily flights to Haiti planned starting Wednesday.
Ten flights arrived in Haiti from Sunday to Tuesday in planes designed for 135 passengers, according to Haitian officials, who didn’t provide a complete count but said six of those flights carried 713 migrants combined.
The camp held more than 14,000 people over the weekend, according to some estimates. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, during a visit Tuesday to Del Rio, said the county’s top official told him the most recent tally was about 8,600 migrants.
U.S. authorities have declined to say how many have been released in the U.S. in recent days.
Abbott has also reportedly ordered state vehicles to create a makeshift wall along the border to block people from crossing the Rio Grande.
The Homeland Security Department has been busing Haitians from Del Rio, a town of 35,000 people, to El Paso, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas border, and this week added flights to Tucson, Arizona, the official said. They are processed by the Border Patrol at those locations.
Criteria for deciding who is flown to Haiti and who is released in the U.S. are a mystery, but two officials said single adults were a priority. If previous handling of asylum-seekers is any guide, the administration is more likely to release those deemed vulnerable, including pregnant women, families with young children and those with medical issues.
The Biden administration exempts unaccompanied children from expulsion flights on humanitarian grounds.
Haitian migrant Nelson Saintil was along the banks of the Rio Grande on Wednesday morning with his wife and four children, ages 5, 10, 13 and 16. They had returned to Ciudad Acuña the day before after eight days in the squalid camp.
The family constantly reevaluated its situation based on imperfect information.
“I don’t want to be like the mice who don’t know about the trap and get caught, because returning to Haiti is like being buried alive,” Saintil said.
The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said in a statement Wednesday that it had been in Ciudad Acuña since Monday offering services to the migrants.