U.S. steps up expulsion of Haitian immigrants
Hundreds put on planes as authorities confront others in Del Rio
DEL RIO — The U.S. flew Haitians camped in this border town back to their homeland Sunday and tried blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signaled the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades.
Three flights from San Antonio International Airport with 145 passengers each arrived in
the Haitian capital of Port-auPrince
on Sunday, and that nation said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more than 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio after crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without an opportunity to seek asylum was in 1991, when the Coast Guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea and sent them to a camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the overthrow of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said Yael Schacher,
senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International, whose doctoral studies focused on the history of U.S. asylum law.
Similarly large numbers of Mexicans have been sent home during peak years of immigration, but over land and not so suddenly.
Central Americans have also crossed the border in comparable numbers without being subject to mass expulsion, although Mexico has agreed to accept them from the U.S. under pandemic-related authority in effect since March 2020. Mexico does not accept expelled Haitians or people of other nations outside of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
When migrants arrive in San Antonio, they often go from the bus station downtown to San Antonio International Airport by way of taxi.
On Sunday, six families came through the station. Five of them got on flights to Florida, and the other family got on a flight to New York, said Minerva Briones, a volunteer at Interfaith Welcome Coalition, a volunteer organization that provides migrants with transportation to the airport, hotels for a night if needed and sandwiches when they are hungry.
“Many of these people are flying to Florida,” Briones said. “But they are going all over the country, wherever their family members are.”
San Antonio taxi drivers said that over the last few days, they have given rides to more migrant families from Haiti. The trip from the bus station to the airport costs the family about $25 one way.
“One man paid me with a $50 bill that was all wet,” said Jose Garza, who drives for Excel Taxi. “I asked him why, and he said because he had just crossed the river this morning.”
Garza has been driving taxis for about 20 years in San Antonio. He and another driver, Eduardo Roa, said they drove many migrants from Honduras last year; this year, it is migrants from Haiti.
When the border was closed Sunday, the migrants initially found other ways to cross nearby until they were confronted by federal and state law enforcement. An Associated Press reporter saw Haitian immigrants still crossing the river into the U.S. about 1½ miles east of their previous spot, but they were eventually stopped by Border Patrol agents on horseback and Texas law enforcement officials.
As they crossed, some Haitians carried boxes on their heads filled with food. Some removed their pants before getting into the river and carried them. Others were unconcerned about getting wet.
Agents yelled at the migrants who were crossing in the waistdeep river to get out of the water. The several hundred who had successfully crossed and were sitting along the riverbank on the U.S. side were ordered to the Del Rio camp. “Go now,” agents yelled. Mexican authorities in an airboat told others trying to cross to go back into Mexico.
Migrant Charlie Jean had crossed back into Ciudad Acuña from the camp to get food for his wife and three daughters, ages 2, 5 and 12. He was waiting on the Mexican side for a restaurant to bring him an order of rice.
“We need food for every day. I can go without, but my kids can’t,” said Jean, who had been living in Chile for five years before beginning the trek north to the U.S. It was unknown if he made it back across and to the camp.
Mexico said Sunday that it would also begin deporting Haitians to their homeland. A government official said the flights would be from towns near the U.S. border and Mexico’s border with Guatemala, where the largest group of Haitians remains.
Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many having left their Caribbean nation after a devastating 2010 earthquake. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle.
Some of the migrants at the Del Rio camp said the devastating earthquake in Haiti last month and the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July make them afraid to return to a country that seems more unstable than when they left.
“In Haiti, there is no security,” said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who arrived in Texas with his wife and two daughters. “The country is in a political crisis.”
Since Friday, 3,300 migrants have been removed from the Del Rio camp to planes or detention centers, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said Sunday. He expected to have 3,000 of the approximately 12,600 remaining migrants moved within a day and aimed for the rest to be be gone within the week.
“We are working around the clock to expeditiously move migrants out of the heat, elements and from underneath this bridge to our processing facilities in order to quickly process and remove individuals from the United States consistent with our laws and our policies,” Ortiz said at news conference at the bridge, which connects Del Rio to Ciudad Acuña. Del Rio, a city of about 35,000 people, is roughly 145 miles west of San Antonio.
The U.S. expected to double daily flights soon to at least six, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Departure cities were still being determined Sunday.
The rapid expulsions were made possible by a pandemic-related authority adopted by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 that allows for migrants to be immediately removed from the country without an opportunity to seek asylum. President Joe Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the order but let the rest of it stand.
Any Haitians not expelled are subject to immigration laws, which include rights to seek asylum and other forms of humanitarian protection. Families are quickly released in the U.S. because the government cannot generally hold children.
Some people arriving on the first flight covered their heads as they walked into a large bus parked next to the plane. Dozens lined up to receive a plate of rice, beans, chicken and plantains as they wondered where they would sleep and how they would make money to support their families.
All were given $100 and tested for COVID-19, though authorities were not planning to put them into quarantine, said Marie-Lourde Jean-Charles with the Office of National Migration.
Gary Monplaisir, 26, said his parents and sister live in Port-auPrince but that he wasn’t sure if he would stay with them because to reach their house he, his wife and their 5-year-old daughter would cross a gang-controlled area called Martissant, where killings are routine.
“I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t have a plan.”
He moved to Chile in 2017, just as he was about to earn an accounting degree, to work as a tow truck driver. He later paid for his wife and daughter to join him. They tried to reach the U.S. because he thought he could get a better-paying job and help his family in Haiti.
“We’re always looking for better opportunities,” he said.
Some migrants said they were planning to leave Haiti again as soon as possible. Valeria Ternission, 29, said she and her husband want to travel with their 4year-old son back to Chile, where she worked as a cashier at a bakery.
“I am truly worried, especially for the child,” she said. “I can’t do anything here.”