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by Cat Fri Sep 17th, 2021 at 11:35:36 AM EST
Expelling Haitian migrants from the United States - which is set to begin Sunday - is part of the Biden administration's six-point strategy for dealing with the increase in border crossings in Del Rio, the Department of Homeland Security said Saturday. The plan also calls for additional U.S. personnel at the border, relocating migrants to other processing locations and improving conditions for migrants in the U.S.
The plan also calls for additional U.S. personnel at the border, relocating migrants to other processing locations and improving conditions for migrants in the U.S.
something blah something root causes blah Lithuania
The Haitians were joined by Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans under the Del Rio International Bridge across the Rio Grande connecting Ciudad Acuña in Mexico to Del Rio, Texas. They slept under light blankets, while a few pitched small tents. Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border said the majority of the migrants were Haitians and more are expected to arrive. Most of the people Reuters spoke with had not come direct from Haiti but had made long and harrowing journeys through Mexico and Central and South America. [...] In Ciudad Acuña, two workers at the main bus terminal said at least two dozen buses full of Haitians had arrived on Friday, with one putting the estimate of individual arrivals at around 1,100. A Mexican official said the number of migrants was around 12,000 on Friday afternoon. [...] Ali Sajous, 29, a Haitian migrant, said U.S. officials were handing out numbers for immigration processing and she, her husband and two-year-old daughter who arrived Monday were No. 910 in the families line. Authorities were processing No. 685 at the time, she said. The U.S. authorities plan to put the Haitians in Del Rio on flights back to Haiti under a public health law known as Title 42, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Lewis G. Owens, a judge in Val Verde County, and an anonymous Biden administration official. [...] U.S. authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the southwest border in August, according to government data released on Wednesday, a slight dip from the previous month but still around 20-year-highs.
Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border said the majority of the migrants were Haitians and more are expected to arrive. Most of the people Reuters spoke with had not come direct from Haiti but had made long and harrowing journeys through Mexico and Central and South America. [...] In Ciudad Acuña, two workers at the main bus terminal said at least two dozen buses full of Haitians had arrived on Friday, with one putting the estimate of individual arrivals at around 1,100. A Mexican official said the number of migrants was around 12,000 on Friday afternoon. [...] Ali Sajous, 29, a Haitian migrant, said U.S. officials were handing out numbers for immigration processing and she, her husband and two-year-old daughter who arrived Monday were No. 910 in the families line. Authorities were processing No. 685 at the time, she said.
The U.S. authorities plan to put the Haitians in Del Rio on flights back to Haiti under a public health law known as Title 42, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Lewis G. Owens, a judge in Val Verde County, and an anonymous Biden administration official. [...] U.S. authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the southwest border in August, according to government data released on Wednesday, a slight dip from the previous month but still around 20-year-highs.
"most"? Did the others come on direct flights from Haiti to the middle of this bridge?
Junior Jean, a 32-year-old man from Haiti, watched as people cautiously carried cases of water or bags of food through the knee-high river water. Jean said he lived on the streets in Chile the past four years, resigned to searching for food in garbage cans. "We are all looking for a better life," he said. [...] A U.S. official told The Associated Press on Friday that the U.S would likely fly the migrants out of the country on five to eight flights a day, starting Sunday, while another official expected no more than two a day and said everyone would be tested for COVID-19. The first official said operational capacity and Haiti's willingness to accept flights would determine how many flights there would be. Both officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. [...] "In Haiti, there is no security," said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who arrived with his wife and two daughters. "The country is in a political crisis." Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many having left their Caribbean nation after a devastating 2010 earthquake. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle. [...] Crowd estimates varied, but Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said Saturday evening there were 14,534 immigrants at the camp under the bridge. Migrants pitched tents and built makeshif t shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river. It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border to wait while deciding whether to attempt entry into the U.S.
"We are all looking for a better life," he said. [...] A U.S. official told The Associated Press on Friday that the U.S would likely fly the migrants out of the country on five to eight flights a day, starting Sunday, while another official expected no more than two a day and said everyone would be tested for COVID-19. The first official said operational capacity and Haiti's willingness to accept flights would determine how many flights there would be. Both officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. [...] "In Haiti, there is no security," said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who arrived with his wife and two daughters. "The country is in a political crisis."
Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many having left their Caribbean nation after a devastating 2010 earthquake. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle. [...] Crowd estimates varied, but Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said Saturday evening there were 14,534 immigrants at the camp under the bridge. Migrants pitched tents and built makeshif t shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river.
It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border to wait while deciding whether to attempt entry into the U.S.
NEW: From our @FoxNews drone, a look at the migrant camp under the international bridge in Del Rio this morning, where thousands migrants remain after they crossed into the US illegally. pic.twitter.com/06sUY2XCi5— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 19, 2021
NEW: From our @FoxNews drone, a look at the migrant camp under the international bridge in Del Rio this morning, where thousands migrants remain after they crossed into the US illegally. pic.twitter.com/06sUY2XCi5
The Administrator received Prime Minister Henry's assessment of developments on the ground and made clear that the United States and USAID are committed to supporting his government by quickly addressing Haiti's urgent humanitarian needs. They discussed ways the United States can be most effective in providing the Haitian people with the help they need, including support for ongoing search and rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
Administrator Power, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele S. Sison, [et al.] conducted an aerial tour of affected areas in southwestern Haiti. The group then visited the commune of Maniche, in Les Cayes Depart, where they surveyed damage and discussed priority needs with community members and local first responders.
Administrator Power held a press conference in Port-au-Prince where she began by expressing her profound condolences to the families of the US service members and Afghans who were killed in Kabul today. She then described how USAID's $32 million < cue Dr Evil pinkie > in just-announced humanitarian assistance would support earthquake response efforts, including by supporting humanitarian partners delivering urgently needed health care services, emergency shelter and food, safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation assistance, gender-based violence prevention and response, child protection, and psychosocial support services.
The number of Haitians and people of Haitian descent who've been expelled has reached 354, said Josue Michel, a spokesman for the Group for Repatriates and Refugees. Authorities had reported at least 244 people expelled as of Sunday. [...] The Dominican Republic was among the first countries to respond after the devastating 2010 earthquake in the Haitian capital, and has helped with reconstruction by securing contracts on major infrastructure projects since then. But relations between the two have soured since September when a Dominican court threatened to revoke citizenship for residents of the Dominican Republic of Haitian descent, which could affect 200,000 people.
Florida Democratic Congressman Frederica S. Wilson, who represents one of the largest Haitian-American communities in the United States, sent a letter to the Biden administration in response to the recent deportations to Haiti that took place under a federal public health law (rarely used in the past), known as "Title 42", used to restrict asylum seekers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The letter urges the Biden administration to reverse this practice and suspend all deportations throughout the duration of the Covid pandemic. Frederica S. Wilson recalls "[...] Haiti has faced severe economic and political struggles for years three centuries, but the COVID-19 pandemic and developing constitutional and security crises have compounded the island-nation's ["]exiting problems["]. Haiti is in no state to be accepting deportation [?] flights and many, if not all, of the migrants who are being sent there pose no national security risk [to USA]," adding "I was heartbroken to hear about the numbers of families and children being sent into these increasingly unstable conditions. While I am grateful for President Biden's leadership in seeking to end this pandemic and encouraged by his vision on immigration reform, we can and must do better."
Frederica S. Wilson recalls "[...] Haiti has faced severe economic and political struggles for years three centuries, but the COVID-19 pandemic and developing constitutional and security crises have compounded the island-nation's ["]exiting problems["]. Haiti is in no state to be accepting deportation [?] flights and many, if not all, of the migrants who are being sent there pose no national security risk [to USA]," adding "I was heartbroken to hear about the numbers of families and children being sent into these increasingly unstable conditions. While I am grateful for President Biden's leadership in seeking to end this pandemic and encouraged by his vision on immigration reform, we can and must do better."
The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without an opportunity to seek asylum was in 1992 when the Coast Guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea, said Yael Schacher, senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International whose doctoral studies focused on the history of U.S. asylum law.
Reflecting the urgency of ["]the political problem["] for the administration, Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mallorkas said Tuesday the images "horrified" him, a seeming shift in tone from a day earlier, when he and others were more sanguine about the situation at the border. [...] when asked by a reporter after his U.N. remarks to offer his reaction to the images. "We'll get it under control," [Biden] insisted.
"We'll get it under control," [Biden] insisted.
Accounts of wide-scale releases - some observed at the Del Rio bus station by Associated Press journalists - are at odds with statements a day earlier by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorkas, who traveled to Del Rio to promise swift action.
Daniel Foote was appointed to the position only in July, following the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise. Even before the migrant expulsions from the small Texas border town of Del Rio, the career diplomat was known to be deeply frustrated with what he considered a lack of urgency in Washington and a glacial pace on efforts to improve conditions in Haiti. [...] "I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life," he wrote. "Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own." The State Department criticized Foote for resigning at a critical juncture and pushed back against suggestions that his policy prescriptions were overlooked. [...] The expulsion flights to Haiti began Sunday and there were 10 by the end of Tuesday, according to Haitian officials. U.S. officials say they are ramping up to seven flights a day, which would make it one of the swiftest, large-scale expulsions from the U.S. in decades. At least one top official in Haiti cheered Foote's resignation while accusing the Biden administration of violating ["]the rights["] of Haitian migrants. ... [Haiti election minister Mathias Pierre also criticized Haiti's elite, saying they have turned a blind eye because migration fuels the economy. He noted that 35% of Haiti's gross domestic product is remittances, with the diaspora, much of it in the U.S., sending roughly $3.8 billion a year.
The State Department criticized Foote for resigning at a critical juncture and pushed back against suggestions that his policy prescriptions were overlooked. [...] The expulsion flights to Haiti began Sunday and there were 10 by the end of Tuesday, according to Haitian officials. U.S. officials say they are ramping up to seven flights a day, which would make it one of the swiftest, large-scale expulsions from the U.S. in decades.
At least one top official in Haiti cheered Foote's resignation while accusing the Biden administration of violating ["]the rights["] of Haitian migrants. ... [Haiti election minister Mathias Pierre also criticized Haiti's elite, saying they have turned a blind eye because migration fuels the economy. He noted that 35% of Haiti's gross domestic product is remittances, with the diaspora, much of it in the U.S., sending roughly $3.8 billion a year.
Mallorkas said about 2,000 Haitians have been rapidly expelled on 17 flights since Sunday and more could be expelled in coming days under pandemic powers that deny people the chance to seek asylum. He said the U.S. has allowed about 12,400 to enter the country, at least temporarily, while they make claims before an immigration judge to stay in the country under the asylum laws or for some other legal reason. They could ultimately be denied and would be subject to removal. Mayorkas said about 5,000 are in DHS custody and being processed to determine whether they will be expelled or allowed to press their claim for legal residency. Some returned to Mexico. [...] In Mexico, just over 100 migrants, most of them single men, remained Friday morning in the riverside camp in Ciudad Acuña.
He said the U.S. has allowed about 12,400 to enter the country, at least temporarily, while they make claims before an immigration judge to stay in the country under the asylum laws or for some other legal reason. They could ultimately be denied and would be subject to removal.
Mayorkas said about 5,000 are in DHS custody and being processed to determine whether they will be expelled or allowed to press their claim for legal residency. Some returned to Mexico. [...] In Mexico, just over 100 migrants, most of them single men, remained Friday morning in the riverside camp in Ciudad Acuña.
pic.twitter.com/wKQmse6uOL— Shaniqua Posting Delusions (@DeIudedShaniqwa) September 27, 2021
pic.twitter.com/wKQmse6uOL
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