On Friday, Sept. 24, the migrant camp that formed under the Del Rio Bridge on the Texas-Mexico border was dismantled. Two machines with shovels swept the place where almost 15.000 migrants, mostly Haitians, arrived to settle on their way to the United States. Many had been sleeping there for days and began to be deported on Sunday, Sept. 19 by the Biden Administration. 

 

Bruno Lozano, Mayor of Del Rio, said at a press conference that the fact that the camp had been vacated was "phenomenal news."

 

It came days after the number of migrants at the border peaked on Saturday, Sept. 18, when migrants driven by confusion over Biden administration policies and misinformation on social media converged on the border crossing trying to seek asylum.

 

Many faced deportation because they were not covered by protections recently extended by the Biden administration to the more than 100,000 Haitian migrants already in the United States, many of whom left their homeland after the devastating 2010 earthquake due to security concerns and social unrest on the island. 

 

"As of this morning, there are no longer migrants in the camp under the Del Rio International Bridge. I will review what we have done, how we have done it, explain the processes and provide the data you have requested," said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

 

Mayorkas said some of the migrants were returned to Mexico, others were transferred to migrant detention centers along the border and others were deported to Haiti.

 

The most vulnerable, including those with medical problems or who claim to have been tortured, will enter the immigration system and a court will decide their future, he said.

 

Vice President Kamala Harris said she was shocked at the "horrific" images of the chases and captures of Haitian migrants who crossed from Mexico into Texas. The Department of Homeland Security announced an investigation into the matter.

As a result of the current migrant situation in the United States, hundreds of Haitians who had arrived in the country began to look for ways to return on the planes that had brought them there. 

 

Haiti is currently suffering from political instability following the assassination of its president in August and an earthquake in the same month that left more than 1,200 dead. Its inhabitants have sought to migrate to other countries in search of better opportunities.