Officials: Many Haitian migrants freed in United States – Boston News, Weather, Sports

DEL RIO, Texas (AP) – Many Haitian migrants camped in a small town on the border with Texas are freed in the United States, two US officials said, contradicting public statements by the Biden administration that the thousands of people in the camp risked immediate expulsion.

Haitians have been released on a “very, very large scale” in recent days, according to an American official who put the figure in the thousands. The manager, directly in touch with the operations who was not authorized to discuss the case on Tuesday and therefore spoke on condition of anonymity

Many were released with notices to appear at an immigration office within 60 days, a result that requires less processing time from border patrol officers than ordering a court appearance in the United States. immigration and indicates the speed at which authorities are acting, the official said.

The Department of Homeland Security transported Haitians from Del Rio to El Paso, Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas border, and this week added flights to Tucson, Arizona, the official said. . They are handled by the border patrol at these locations.

A second US official, also in the know and speaking on condition of anonymity, said large numbers of Haitians were being treated under immigration laws and were not placed on flights to deportation to Haiti which began on Sunday. The official couldn’t be more specific on the number.

U.S. officials have been rushing in recent days to find buses to Tucson, but have resorted to theft when they couldn’t find enough transport contractors, the two officials said. Coastguard planes took Haitians from Del Rio to El Paso.

The releases in the United States came despite signals of a massive effort to deport Haitians on flights to Haiti under a pandemic-related authority that denies migrants the opportunity to seek asylum. A third US official not authorized to discuss operations said there were seven daily flights to Haiti scheduled from Wednesday.

Reports of large-scale releases – some seen at the Del Rio bus station by Associated Press reporters – contradict statements made the day before by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who surrendered to Del Rio to promise swift action.

“If you come to the United States illegally you will be sent back, your trip will not be successful and you will put your life and that of your family in danger,” he said at a press conference on Monday.

The releases come amid a swift effort to clear the camp under a bridge that some estimates hold more than 14,000 people over the weekend in a town of 35,000. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, on a Tuesday visit to Del Rio, said the county’s top official told him the most recent tally in the camp was around 8,600 migrants.

The criteria for deciding who is transported to Haiti and who is released in the United States were unclear, but two U.S. officials said single adults were the priority for deportation flights.

The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, Mexico has started removing Haitian migrants from the U.S. border by bus, authorities said on Tuesday, signaling a new level of support to the United States as the camp presented President Joe Biden with a humanitarian and humanitarian challenge. more and more political.

The White House faces strong bipartisan condemnation. Republicans say the policies of the Biden administration led Haitians to believe they would be granted asylum. Democrats are expressing outrage after images went viral this week of border patrol agents on horseback using aggressive tactics against migrants.

Mexico has helped at key times before. It stepped up patrols to prevent unaccompanied Central American children from reaching the Texas border in 2014, allowed tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. courts in immigration in 2019 and, last month, began deporting migrants from Central America to Guatemala. after the Biden administration sent them to southern Mexico.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s Secretary of State for External Relations, said on Tuesday that he had spoken with his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, about the situation of Haitians. Ebrard said most Haitians already had refugee status in Chile or Brazil and were not seeking it in Mexico.

“What they are asking is to be allowed to cross Mexico freely into the United States,” Ebrard said.

Two Mexican federal officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed Mexico’s actions.

One of the officials said three buses full of migrants left Acuña on Tuesday morning for Piedras Negras, about 90 kilometers from the border, where they boarded a flight to the southern town of Villahermosa, in the state of Tabasco. .

The other official said there was a flight on Monday between the city of Monterrey in the north and the town of Tapachula in the south, near the Guatemalan border. Tapachula is home to the largest immigration detention center in Latin America. The flight was carrying around 100 migrants who had been picked up around the Monterrey bus station, a hub for various routes north of the US border.

The second official said the plan was to move all Haitians who had previously applied for asylum in Mexico to Tapachula.

Haitian migrants who are already in detention centers in Mexico and have not sought asylum will be the first to be transported directly to Haiti once Mexico begins these flights, according to the official.

Around Ciudad Acuña, Mexican authorities are redoubling their efforts to keep migrants away from the border. There have been overnight detentions by immigration officials and raids on hotels known to house migrants.

“All of a sudden they knocked on the door and (yelled) ‘immigration’, ‘police’, as if they were looking for drug dealers,” said Freddy Register, a 37-year-old Venezuelan staying in a hotel. with his Haitian. wife, Vedette Dollard. The couple were surprised at midnight.

Authorities took away four people and others who were outside the hotel, he said. “They took our phones to investigate and took us to immigration offices, took our photos,” Registry said. They were held overnight but were eventually returned to their phones and released. The authorities gave them two options: leave Mexico or return to Tapachula.

Tuesday afternoon, they decided to leave town. They bought tickets for a bus ride to the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, planning to continue to Tapachula where they had previously applied for asylum.

Others left without being told. Small groups arrived at the Ciudad Acuña bus station to purchase tickets for Veracruz, Monterrey, and Mexico City. The same bus lines banned from selling them tickets for trips north through Mexico, sold them tickets to go south with no problem.

In Haiti, dozens of migrants unhappy at being deported from the United States tried to rush on a plane that landed in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday afternoon as they shouted at authorities. A security guard closed the plane’s door in time as some deportees started throwing stones and shoes at the plane. Several of them lost their belongings in the fight when the police arrived. The group was disembarking from one of the three flights scheduled for the day.

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