White House ordered border authorities to clear out bridge by Friday evening ahead of BLM protestThe Biden administration has set a deadline of Friday night to clear out the Haitian migrant camp that has caused major headaches for the White House , sources told the Washington Examiner.
Two senior officials within the Department of Homeland Security said the camp, underneath the Del Rio-Acuna International Bridge, is creating bad "optics" and drawing renewed scrutiny to the administration's inability to curb illegal immigration. At one point, more than 15,000 people were in the camp, though the number had dwindled to less than a third of that by Thursday.
“They want those people out from under that bridge so they can’t be seen anymore," the first official said. "It’s an optics thing. They are moving them around for process and release. They’re going to have everyone at the bridge gone in the next two days.”
As of Thursday morning, fewer than 4,000 noncitizens remained under the bridge. Roughly 3,000 to 5,000 of the 15,000 have been deported or are expected to be expelled. The remaining 10,000 to 12,000 people will be released into the country and permitted to travel nationwide, according to two top officials at different DHS agencies that handle border and immigration matters.
The sudden push to get everyone out of the squalid living conditions is only happening now following orders from the West Wing. Federal authorities learned this week of a Black Lives Matter protest scheduled to take place near the bridge this weekend and moved quickly to avoid a more chaotic scene.
"They don’t want them all riled up [at the time of the protest],” the official said, adding that most are being sent to San Antonio, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Del Rio.
A second person who also shared operational information on the condition of anonymity wrote in an email Thursday that the “White House wants all cleared out by Friday evening.”..............
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