Click 2 Houston September 18, 2021 5:14 pm
Biden administration speeds up deportation flights for Haitians in growing Texas migrant camp
DEL RIO — The Biden administration said Saturday it was accelerating deportation flights and sending 400 federal agents to Del Rio to seize control of an escalating crisis as thousands of mostly Haitian immigrants continued streaming to the Texas city’s border, camping out in squalid conditions under its international bridge.
Customs and Border Protection temporarily shuttered its ports of entry there late Friday and re-routed international traffic 57 miles east to the nearby city of Eagle Pass, a move local officials worried could cost millions in trade losses if the closure lasts.
CBP is coordinating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard to move migrants from Del Rio to other processing locations, Department of Homeland Security officials said in the statement Saturday. About 2,000 had already been transferred, but overnight the camp grew to more than 14,600 migrants — the most Val Verde County has ever seen at once, local officials said. DHS said it was securing extra transportation to expedite deportation flights to Haiti and other countries in the next 72 hours.
The situation in Del Rio, nearly three hours west of San Antonio, spiraled this week as more than 15,000 migrants, many of them from Haiti, arrived at the border in recent days, settling in a makeshift camp under the bridge as they waited for CBP agents to process their petitions to stay in the United States. Conditions quickly deteriorated, and Gov. Greg Abbott sent National Guard and Department of Public Safety troopers to assist federal agents in securing the area. The number of migrants arriving there nearly doubled over the past few days, said Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens, a Democrat.
“The numbers are just staggering,” he said.
He said 10 more buses carrying migrants arrived at the border city overnight and two more Saturday, blaming his Mexican counterpart in Ciudad Acuña for not doing more to stop through-migration on that country’s side. Most of the migrants are of Haitian origin, with the remainder largely from Cuba, Venezuela and Honduras, he said.
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https://www.click2houston.com/news/texas/2021/09/18/biden-administration-speeds-up-deportation-flights-for-haitians-in-growing-texas-migrant-camp/
