Thousands of migrants, most of them from Haiti, are assembled under poor conditions at a temporary camp under the Del Rio International Bridge as U.S. Border Patrol agents work to process an influx from Mexico that swelled the numbers in the makeshift habitation within a week.
Border Patrol officials told The New York Times last week that 9,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti, made it across the Rio Grande this week and are now awaiting processing on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border amid significant delays.
In the coming days, thousands more migrants are expected to arrive. By Saturday, Sept. 18, local officials in Del Rio, Texas, were putting the number of asylum-seekers at more than 14,000.
The Biden administration has reacted by initiating plans to bypass the asylum approval process to deport many of the Haitians, beginning with single adults, back to their country on a ramped up series of flights to the Caribbean nation.
Earlier in the week, there were just a few hundred people at the temporary camp. The surge in migrants, which has persisted throughout the summer, comes amid turmoil in Haiti.
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Even before Haitian president Jovennel Moïse was assassinated in July, there was a spike in violent crimes and kidnappings in the Caribbean nation. Then, the death of the president plummeted Haiti into political uncertainty over who would lead the country.
An August earthquake in Haiti killed more than 2,000 people. In July, the Biden administration extended temporary protected status for Haitians living in the U.S. who were displaced by the 2010 earthquake.
