The Biden administration has deported more than 2,000 Haitians since last week, a nearly even mix of single adults and families, out of the more than 12,000 that have been apprehended in a small Texas town by border officials, according to internal accounts.
In a Thursday night statement, the Department of Homeland Security stated that 3,900 more Haitians are currently in government custody. These individuals will be sent to deportation or taken into removal proceedings.
According to a source familiar with the matter, nearly 4,000 migrants have been released and instructed to report to immigration officials. Thousands more are currently being interviewed. Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, stated during a Thursday news briefing that officials planned to quickly turn down all the single Haitian adults or migrant families that arrived after crossing the Rio Grande into Del Rio (Texas).
She said that some migrant families were allowed to remain, even those with young children, as Mexico wouldn’t accept them. According to her, the administration has had difficulty turning away some families due to Mexico’s limited shelter capacity.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, about two-thirds of Haitian migrants arrived in families. The department didn’t immediately respond to questions regarding who was deported.
According to the agency, approximately 4,000 migrants still waited under a bridge in Del Rio as of Thursday. This is where 15,000 migrants were at one time crowded together in poor conditions. This raises concerns of a humanitarian crisis.
The Biden administration’s response to the spike in migrants has drawn condemnations from immigration and human rights advocates, as well as members of the president’s own party. The senior U.S. envoy for Haiti policy resigned on Thursday over what he called the administration’s “inhumane, counterproductive decision” to send Haitian migrants back to a country that has been racked this summer by deadly natural disasters and political turmoil.
President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris were horrified to see Border Patrol agents riding on horseback to help Haitian migrants cross the Rio Grande. The Homeland Security Department stated that the agents are being investigated for mistreating migrants and that the horse patrol in Del Rio was temporarily suspended.
“Many of these vulnerable Haitian families have braved unforgiving terrain to reach our southern border and lawfully seek asylum,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the president and chief executive of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a refugee-resettlement agency, said in a statement on Thursday. “Returning them home, or to third countries with no infrastructure to support them, is as dangerous as it is unconscionable. To do so without so much as an interview or court hearing is downright un-American.”
Ms. Psaki said the president was working to develop a “humane” immigration system, “but we’ve also reiterated that it is our objective to continue to implement what is law, and what our laws are and that includes border restrictions.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.