Haitian migrant crisis in Texas deepens

Muchos haitianos han estado tratando de llegar a Estados Unidos procedentes de Sudamérica, partieron de su país caribeño tras el devastador sismo del 2010. Al escasear el empleo en Brasil tras las olimpiadas de 2016, muchos haitianos se encaminaron hacia Estados Unidos a pie by car.

Some Haitian migrants argue that They cannot return to their country due to the recent earthquake and political instability following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

>> Read more: The United States prepares the deportation of Haitians

The United States has started sending thousands of Haitian immigrants home. More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on Sunday on three flights, and Haiti said it expected six more flights on Tuesday. All in all, the American authorities anticipated hunt many of the more than 12,000 people who have camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

The United States plans to run seven daily kidnapping flights starting Wednesday, four in Port-au-Prince and three in Cap-Haitien, according to an American official. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio, although authorities may add another route from El Paso, he added.

The only obvious example of mass deportation without the possibility of seeking asylum occurred in 1992, when the coast guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea.said Yael Shacher, an American activist International refugees, and that he based his doctoral studies on the history of asylum law in the United States.

In years with peaks in immigration many groups of Mexicans were expelled, but transfers were made by land and not so suddenly.

Migrants from Central America have also crossed the border in similar contingents without being subjected to mass expulsions., although Mexico agreed to receive them from the United States under a mandate associated with the pandemic introduced in March 2020. Mexico does not accept expelled Haitians or people of other nationalities, except Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans.

When The United States closed the border on Sunday, immigrants first found other ways to cross around the area, until they find federal and state agents. A journalist from Associated Press saw Haitian migrants continue to cross the river to the United States about 1.5 miles east of the previous crossing point, but eventually They were detained by border patrol officers on horseback and Texas security forces.

Some Haitians crossed the river with boxes on their heads full of food. Several took off their pants before entering the river and held them out of the water. Officers shouted at the migrants, in waist-deep water, and told them to get out of the water. The hundreds of people who had made it through and who were waiting on the American bank were ordered to go to the Del Rio camp.. Mexican agents on a boat told others they wanted to cross over to return to Mexico.

Haitian Charlie Jean had returned from the camps in Ciudad Acuña to look for food for his wife and three daughters, aged 2, 5 and 12. He was waiting on the Mexican side for a restaurant to deliver him an order for rice. “We need food for every day. I can do without her, but my daughters can’t. ”said Jean, that lived in Chile for five years before embarking on the journey north to the United States.

Mexico announced on Sunday that it would also begin deporting Haitians to their country. An official noted that flights would depart from cities close to the US border and the border with Guatemala, where the largest group of migrants is found.

In recent years, large numbers of Haitians emigrated to the United States from South America. Many of them left their Caribbean countries after the devastating earthquake of 2010. When the jobs associated with the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro ran out, Numerous they embarked on the dangerous journey to the United States border on foot, by bus and by car, which included going through the dreaded Darien Jungle In Panama.

Some migrants from Del Rio camp said that the recent earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, They made them fear to return to a country which seems more unstable than when they left. “There is no security in Haiti. The country is in a political crisis,” said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who came to Texas with his wife and two daughters.