On Thursday in Southwest Texas, thousands of migrants from Haiti and South America began to rest in the shade of the Del Rio International Bridge. Soon, the situation began to worsen as the number of migrants seeking shelter grew at alarming rates. According to the US Border Patrol, as of Sunday, around 12,000 asylum seekers were camped in Del Rio. Authorities plan on removing “many more” of the migrants sheltered in Del Rio.
The migrant’s temporary dwelling began to take on squalid conditions, with proper sanitation and access to clean water becoming scarce. Migrants were seen crossing the Rio Grande with bags of food and supplies on their heads.
With less-than-ideal conditions in the camps, the temperature has been routinely peaking at over 100 degrees during the day. The NOAA seven-day weather outlook predicts that temperatures will reach the mid 90’s to 100’s for the rest of the week. Governor Greg Abbott became concerned with the well-being of the migrants and authorized police and National Guard personnel to help in the humanitarian efforts.
Greg Abbott criticized the lack of federal support for the migrants in his statement, saying, “The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,”
Subsequently, the United States began a massive effort to evacuate and deport the migrants back to Haiti. Three flights have already taken some 300 or more migrants back to Port-au-Prince, and six more flights are scheduled for Tuesday. Such sudden mass deportation of migrants has not been seen since 1992. Haitians are being sent home without an opportunity for processing.
Haitians have been migrating to the US at large for years. Frequent natural disasters, political unrest, and a lack of jobs have forced Haitians to push their way north. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the amount of Haitian immigration has tripled since 1990. However, given this humanitarian crisis, the US plans full-scale deportation of any migrants in Del Rio.
