How desperate Haitians are paying up to $10,000 and traveling thousands of miles by foot, coach, boat to cross into America from Mexico and reach 'safety' in isolated Del Rio
Desperate Haitians are paying up to $10,000 and traveling thousands of miles by foot, coach and boat to reach safety in the isolated town of Del Rio on the Mexico-U.S. border.
Men, women and children are making the grueling journey across international borders, a notoriously dangerous jungle, the sea and deserts.
Some 15,000 Haitians who took that risk have, in the past five days, now illegally crossed from the Mexican border and waded through the waters of the Rio Grande river to set up camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
The influx of migrants is being blamed on the Biden administration pausing deportation flights. In response, the U.S. is flying Haitians back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force. On Sunday, three flights carried migrants back to Port-au-Prince, with up to seven daily flights planned from Wednesday.
Today, thousands of migrants remained crowded under the Acuña - Del Rio International Bridge as overwhelmed authorities tried to process the influx of people while others started scrambling back across the river to Mexico to avoid deportation.
The huge surge in Haitians travelling to the U.S. Mexican border has been in the making for years as they have been migrating from South America for several years - particularly since the deadly 2010 earthquake.
But now there is a perfect storm due to hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a devastating earthquake in Haiti last month and political instability.
Desperate Haitians are paying up to $10,000 and traveling thousands of miles by foot, coach and boat to reach safety in the isolated town of Del Rio on the Mexico-U.S. border.
Men, women and children are making the grueling journey across international borders, a notoriously dangerous jungle, the sea and deserts. Some 15,000 Haitians who took that risk have, in the past five days, now illegally crossed from the Mexican border and waded through the waters of the Rio Grande river to set up camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
Migrants wade across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas to Mexico on Sunday to pick up supplies
Some 15,000 Haitians who took that risk have now illegally crossed from the Mexican border and waded through the waters of the Rio Grande river to set up camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas
On top of this, Border Patrol authorities said that despite the U.S. starting to resolve the issue, they believe the criminal gangs and cartels in South and Central America are working against them by paying for Haitians to make the dangerous journey.
Many of the Haitians aiming to reach the U.S. are traveling from both Haiti directly and from other South American countries such as Chile and Brazil where they have lived since seeking refuge there after the 2010 earthquake.
The reasons for the influx of Haitians traveling to the U.S. are multifaceted. The rise in Haitian migration began soon after President Biden took office when he began reversing former President Donald Trump's strict immigration policies. Many Haitians interpreted this as the U.S. being more open to immigration.
'False information, misinformation and misunderstanding might have created a false sense of hope,' said Guerline M. Jozef, the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told The New York Times.
Meanwhile, last month Haiti experienced another devastating earthquake last month and the assassination of the President Jovenel Moïse in July - leaving gangs to wreak havoc on the capital. This led many Haitians to flee their homes and leave the country.
'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.'
In addition, many Haitians who are traveling to the U.S. are among the estimated 250,000 Haitians who left Haiti after the 2010 earthquake for Chile and Brazil. But since the pandemic, both countries have suffered economic declines which has sparked the current influx of migrants trying to reach the U.S.
As a result, thousands have flocked to Del Rio after crossing narrow sections of the Rio Grande River.
Migrants cross the Acandi River on their journey north, near Acandi, Colombia, on Wednesday
Many have chosen to cross from Ciudad Acuna in Mexico to Del Rio due to word of mouth from other people who have crossed there in previous years, Raul Ortiz, the Chief of the United States Border Patrol, said.
Ortiz said that Haitians have crossed into Del Rio because they know people who have crossed in that area previously and said the crossing is relatively safe.
He told a press conference on Sunday: 'There are a couple of things our intelligence is telling us about the Haitian migration flow.
'When I was a chief here in 2019, we faced a similar influx, it just wasn't to the same magnitude of what we have seen over the last four or five days.
'Haitians and folks from Western Africa traditionally cross the Del Rio sector area because they have known individuals previously that have crossed in this area.
'They say the community across the border with Acuña is relatively safe and so traditionally it is because of word of mouth. Certainly what happened this time is that number has doubled and then tripled relatively quickly.'
Masline Julmeus, 8, is comforted by her mother Odelene Simolia after they walked three days through the state of Coahuila, Mexico at a traffic stop on a highway outside of Ciudad Acuna
Migrants wade across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, Sunday, Sept. 19,
The U.S. is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signals the beginning of what could be one of America's swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades
The deportation of Haitian migrants had been temporarily suspended by Washington after a devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean nation last month, but has since resumed
Migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. grab onto a rope to guide them through the current while crossing the Rio Grande river into Mexico near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S
Most of the migrants fly from Haiti to Ecuador before either trying to find work in Brazil or Chile and heading north across state borders to the U.S.
But some have chosen the direct and treacherous route to the U.S. by traveling in small boats across the sea from Haiti. On Monday, the U.S. coast guard intercepted a vessel carrying 103 people, 18 miles off the coast of Florida. The migrants had been at sea for six days.
Jean Edelince, 36, who is originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, told the LA Times he had lived in Chile for four years but his family decided to travel north to reach Mexico through Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and finally Guatemala.
He is among hundreds of Haitian migrants who have made the dangerous journey through the jungle of Darien Gap, which connects Colombia and Panama.
Edelince told the newspaper that he saw dead bodies of more than a dozen migrants who perished while walking through the jungle.
Many of the migrants sail out of Necocli, a small town on Colombia's Caribbean coast, across the Gulf of Uraba to the village of Acandi, to start the week-long trek through the jungle that takes them into Panama — the next stop on the long road to the United States.
While trekking through the lawless jungle known as the Darien Gap, migrants face the risks of being swept away by rivers, assaulted by armed groups or getting lost in the rainforest. Yet thousands of families are making the journey, hoping for a new life.
'We we want God to help us prosper' said Jackie Charles, a Haitian who was boarding a boat in Necocli. 'Our country is in crisis and we need to support our family.'
The Darien Gap has long been used by migrants from Cuba and Haiti, who find it almost impossible to fly to Mexico or the U.S. due to visa restrictions.
The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said
A bus load of migrants arrives at San Antonio International Airport on Monday as a deportation flight prepares to take them back to Haiti
Haitians who were deported from the United States arrive at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, in Port au Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Sep. 19
After surviving the journey, Edelince managed to reach the southern Mexico city of Tapachula but has been stuck there due to visa issues for the past four months.
Thousands of Haitian migrants are stuck here with many complaining that authorities have stopped them from transiting through Mexico. Escape is nearly impossible for those who cannot afford human traffickers who charge around $10,000 per person to reach the U.S. border.
The influx of migrants has overwhelmed Tapachula and the local migration infrastructure. Thousands of migrants can be seen sleeping in the open on the streets.
Those who cannot afford the traffickers have decided to make the long and tiring journey to the Texas border by foot from Tapachula.
Federal authorities have recently been allowing migrant groups to walk for hours and tire under sweltering heat before swooping in to detain them. Before dawn on Wednesday, officials surprised migrants sheltering from the rain in in the nearby town of Mapastepec, chasing them between houses and businesses.
On Friday, 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.
A United States Border Patrol agent on horseback uses the reins as he tries to stop Haitian migrants who waded through the Rio Grande river
A United States Border Patrol agent on horseback tries to stop a Haitian migrant from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande on Sunday
US Border Patrol officers assist a young migrant seeking asylum who is having health issues near the International Bridge
A U.S. Border Patrol officer assists another migrant seeking asylum in the U.S. near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S.,
National Guardsmen monitor traffic entering an area near the International Bridge where thousand of migrants, mostly from Haiti, have formed a makeshift camp
The migrants stopped in Tamaulipas told local media they had boarded about 15 buses in the city of Poza Rica, Veracruz, and were headed on a nine-hour journey to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
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.
Speaking about who has funded the Haitians and their journey, Ortiz added: 'We do recognise that the cartels and criminal organisations have a vested interest in what is happening south of us. So we are working with our inter-agency partners, with our investigative agencies to identify those organisations.'
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.
Since Friday, 3,300 migrants have already been removed from the Del Rio camp to planes or detention centers, Border Patrol Chief Raul L. 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 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 Del Rio bridge. The Texas city of about 35,000 people sits roughly 145 miles (230 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights today, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.
The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said.
The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without an opportunity to seek asylum was in 1992 when the Coast Guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea, 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 nationalities outside of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
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.
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.
Thousands of Haitian migrants cross Rio Grande BACK to Mexico to avoid deportation as DHS ramps up expulsion flights to seven a day - but still Biden and Harris remain silent on crisis
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.
A group of 26 Republican governors sent a letter to Biden demanding a meeting to discuss the ongoing 'national security crisis' at the border.
'The months-long surge in illegal crossings has instigated an international humanitarian crisis, spurred a spike in international criminal activity, and opened the floodgates to human traffickers and drug smugglers endangering public health and safety in our states,' the letter, distributed by the Republican Governors Association, reads.
Every U.S. Republican governor – excluding Vermont Governor Phil Scott – signed the letter.
'A crisis that began at our southern border now extends beyond to every state and requires immediate action before the situation worsens,' they continued.
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. 
Migrants streamed back across the Rio Grande River from Del Rio, Teas to Acuna, Mexico using a rope to guide them across the water
Video emerged Monday of scores of mostly Haitian migrants returning to the Mexico side of the Rio Grande River crossing as DHS accelerates deportations 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.'
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.
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.
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.
On Sunday, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry pledged to help those who are returning to the country.
'It's with great sorrow that we watch on social media, through television and listen on the radio to the tribulations of our brothers and sisters at the border of Mexico and the United States,' he said in a televised speech, imploring Haitians to build a future where they can 'live well in our country without having to suffer these forms of shame.'Former President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed the White House for the continued migration crisis at the southern border, which has caused Customs and Border Protection to encounter more than 1.25 million illegal crossers since Biden took office.
'The largest number of illegal aliens in the history of our Country are pouring in by the millions,' Trump slammed. 'They are totally unchecked and unvetted, can do whatever they want, and go wherever they want.
He added: 'Our Country is rapidly becoming a cesspool of humanity. Murderers, drug dealers, and criminals of all shapes and sizes are a big part of this massive migration.'
'Tens of thousands of people are coming from Haiti, and many now from countries in Africa, even more so now than South America,' he said. 'Nothing is done and the corrupt Mainstream Media is giving almost no attention to what will be perhaps the greatest Crisis in the history of our Country. This is not just a Border Crisis, this is a Crisis Crisis. God Bless America!'
Besides accelerating the rate of removal flights of the mass influx of Haiti asylum-seekers, DHS is also prompting Customs and Border Protection to increase manpower and improve conditions for those at camps along the border.
August was the first month since Biden became president where the monthly number of migrant crossings went down instead of increased. In July there were 213,534 encounters compared to 208,887 last month.
Several migrants, when they found out about U.S. plans on Saturday for removal, said they still intended to remain in the encampment and seek asylum.
Some spoke of the most recent devastating earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, saying they were afraid to return to a country that seems more unstable than when they left.
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.
CBP closed off vehicle and pedestrian traffic in both directions Friday at the only border crossing between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña 'to respond to urgent safety and security needs' and it remained closed Saturday. Travelers were being directed indefinitely to a crossing in Eagle Pass, roughly 55 miles away.
Crowd estimates varied, but Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said Saturday evening there were 14,534 immigrants at the camp under the bridge. Migrants pitched tents and built makeshift shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river.
It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border to wait while deciding whether to attempt entry into the U.S.
The number of Haitian arrivals began to reach unsustainable levels for the Border Patrol in Del Rio about two-and-a-half weeks ago, prompting the agency's acting sector chief, Robert Garcia, to ask headquarters for help, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Since then, DHS has transferred Haitians in buses and vans to other Border Patrol facilities in Texas, specifically El Paso, Laredo and Rio Grande Valley. They are mostly processed outside of the pandemic-related authority, meaning they can claim asylum and remain in the U.S. while their claims are considered. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes custody decision but families can generally not be held more than 20 days under court order.
DHS announcing its plan on Saturday signals a shift to use of pandemic-related authority for immediate expulsion to Haiti without an opportunity to claim asylum, the official said.
The flight plan, while potentially massive in scale, hinges on how Haitians respond. They might have to decide whether to stay put at the risk of being sent back to an impoverished homeland wracked by poverty and political instability or return to Mexico. Unaccompanied children are exempt from fast-track expulsions.
DHS said, 'our borders are not open, and people should not make the dangerous journey.'
'Individuals and families are subject to border restrictions, including expulsion,' the agency wrote. 'Irregular migration poses a significant threat to the health and welfare of border communities and to the lives of migrants themselves, and should not be attempted.'
U.S. authorities are being severely tested after Biden quickly dismantled Trump administration policies that Biden considered cruel or inhumane, most notably one requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for U.S. immigration court hearings.
A pandemic-related order to immediately expel migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum that was introduced in March 2020 remains in effect, but unaccompanied children and many families have been exempt. During his first month in office, Biden chose to exempt children traveling alone on humanitarian grounds.
Nicole Phillips, legal director for advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance, said Saturday that the U.S. government should process migrants and allow them to apply for asylum, not rush to expel them.
'It really is a humanitarian crisis,' Phillips said. 'There needs to be a lot of help there now.'
Mexico's immigration agency said in a statement Saturday that Mexico has opened a 'permanent dialogue' with Haitian government representatives 'to address the situation of irregular migratory flows during their entry and transit through Mexico, as well as their assisted return.'
The agency didn't specify if it was referring to the Haitians in Ciudad Acuña or to the thousands of others in Tapachula, at the Guatemalan border, and the agency didn't immediately reply to a request for further details.
In August, U.S. authorities stopped migrants nearly 209,000 times at the border, which was close to a 20-year high even though many of the stops involved repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for being expelled under the pandemic authority.
A sweeping U.S. public health order known as Title 42, issued under the Trump administration at the beginning of the pandemic, allows most migrants to be quickly expelled without a chance to claim asylum.
Biden has kept that rule in place, although he exempted unaccompanied minors and his administration has not been expelling most families. Biden had promised a more humane immigration approach than that of his predecessor.
A U.S. judge ruled last week the policy could not be applied to families, but the ruling does not go into effect for two weeks and the Biden administration has appealed.
Typically, migrants can turn themselves in at the border and claim asylum, triggering a long court process. But the Trump administration whittled away at protections, arguing many asylum seekers did not qualify.
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