The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. closes part of border, flies migrant home
Officials try to cut off steady flow of Haitians crossing from Mexico.
DEL RIO, TEXAS — The United States acted Sunday to stem the flow of migrants into Texas by blocking the Mexican border at an isolated town where thousands of Haitian refugees set up a camp, and American officials began flying some of the migrants back to their homeland.
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 almost three weeks.
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 1.5 miles east of the 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 shouted 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 river bank 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 camps 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 whether he made it back across and to the camp.
Mexico said Sunday it also would begin deporting Haitians to their homeland. A government official said the flights would be from towns near the U.S. border and the border with Guatemala, where the largest group 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 recent devastating earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse 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, 38, who arrived in Texas with his wife and two daughters. “The country is in a political crisis.”
Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz said Sunday that 3,300 migrants already have been removed from the Del Rio camp to planes or detention
centers, and he expects to have 3,000 of the approximately 12,600 remaining migrants moved within a day. The rest should be gone within the week, he said. The first three planes left San Antonio for Port-au-prince on Sunday, with the first arriving in the afternoon.
“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 Sunday at a news conference at the Del Rio bridge.
Del Rio, a city of about 35,000 people, is roughly 145 miles west of San Antonio.
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 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.
Meanwhile in Haiti, three flights landed at the Port-auprince airport, each carrying 145 people.
Families arriving on the first flight held children by
the hand or carried them as they exited, and some of the 145 deportees 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 of the deportees 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-au-prince, but he wasn’t sure if he would stay with them. To reach their house, he, his wife and their 5-yearold daughter would have to cross a gang-controlled area called Martissant where killings are routine.
“I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t have a plan.”