As of: 09/25/2021 1:38 a.m.
US President Biden has sharply reprimanded the actions of mounted border police against refugees from Haiti. “These people will atone,” he said. The refugee camp in a Texan city has now been closed.
US President Joe Biden spoke up with harsh criticism of the officials after criticizing the actions of mounted US border guards against Haitian refugees. “This is outrageous,” said Biden in the White House. “I promise you, these people will atone,” added the president. “There will be consequences.” What happened there is “dangerous” and “wrong” and sends the wrong signal – nationally and internationally.
Photos and videos of the deployment of mounted border guards near the Texan city of Del Rio on the border with Mexico caused outrage at the beginning of the week. Among other things, one could see how a policeman on horseback grabs a Haitian by his T-shirt. In other pictures it looks as if police officers are threateningly swinging their long reins. US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said an investigation into the incidents was ongoing. Biden also referred to this investigation.
15,000 under a bridge
Thousands of Haitians tried to get into the United States from Mexico. Pictures of at times more than 15,000 people who stayed under a bridge in Del Rio caused a sensation. This camp has now been dissolved, said the Ministry of Homeland Security. The last of the predominantly Haitian migrants either left the place themselves or were taken away.
Most recently, only about 225 people had stayed in the makeshift camp. The Mayor of Del Rio, Bruno Lozano, called the evacuation of the camp “phenomenal news”. Many of the Haitians are threatened with deportation to their homeland.
8000 went back voluntarily
There have been no migrants in the camp under the Del Rio Bridge since Friday morning, Mayorkas told journalists in the White House. Around 2,000 people were brought back to Haiti in 17 deportation flights, he said. Others were taken to shelters along the border. “Many of them will be brought back to Haiti from there,” added the minister.
It is estimated that 8,000 migrants have voluntarily returned across the border into Mexico, Mayorkas said. Around 12,400 people would be heard by immigration judges to decide whether or not to stay in the US. In 5000 other cases, the homeland security authority is examining a possible repatriation. A total of 30,000 migrants have arrived in the small border town since September 9.
Criticism from Unicef
But this approach also meets with sharp criticism in the Democratic Party. Haitians sought humanitarian protection in the United States after the government recently expanded protection to approximately 100,000 Haitians already in the United States. But this was not the case for newcomers from the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
The US and Mexico sought to end the increasingly politicized humanitarian situation on the border. This led to the resignation of the US government’s special envoy for Haiti in protest against an “inhumane” deportation of Haitian migrants from the USA to their homeland, and drew criticism from Unicef, among others.