If the sudden collapse of Afghanistan weren’t enough evidence, the affair of the Acuna International Bridge near Del Rio, Texas, is certainly proof of this administration’s ability to be blind-sided by reality.
The size of the mostly Haitian masses huddled around and beneath the bridge grew over the weekend to a staggering 16,000, up from the 10,500 we reported on Friday. Sanitation and feeding remain ongoing and worsening challenges, as stretched-then CBP officials take four hours to complete one feeding schedule and migrants freely return to Mexico to buy or otherwise procure food.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has reportedly taken some belated actions in dealing with the crisis.
- The border at Del Rio was officially and finally closed on Sunday to vehicular traffic.
- On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had bussed a fraction of the migrants–about 2,000–from the camp to other locations.
- A U.S. official told The Associated Press on Friday that the U.S would begin flying the migrants out of the country on five to eight flights a day, beginning Sunday. Three flights landed at Haiti’s Port-au-Prince airport on Sunday, each carrying 145 people. The returns are apparently under the provisions of the CDC’s Coronavirus Title 42 protocol.
- That last bit of good news was tempered by the response of some Haitian officials, who are balking at the return of their fellow citizens. Election Minister Mathias Pierre said most Haitians still in Haiti can’t satisfy their own needs and that the U.S. government should stop the deportations. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Texas apparently agrees, having ordered on Thursday the Biden government to stop Title 42 deportations. The government is appealing.
It should be remembered that while sympathetic news accounts portray the Haitians as suffering from the effects of earthquakes and assassinations, most of those in Del Rio and en route there have lived in places like Brazil and Chile for years. They are now headed to the U.S. for only one reason: word has gone out that “Temporary Protected Status” is now available to Haitians from an overwhelmingly welcoming U.S. government.
And just why are they coming now? Migrants are telling Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies that on Sunday, September 12, the Mexican government, which had kept the migrants bottled up for months in Chiapas and other southern states, suddenly turned them loose. This was ostensibly in celebration of Mexican independence: a multi-day event known as El Grito. Bensman notes that this has not been confirmed by official sources.
To the migrants, DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas lamely issued this warning during a conference call over the weekend:
We are very concerned that Haitians that are taking the irregular migration path are receiving misinformation—that the border is open or that Temporary Protected Status is available to them despite the fact they are arriving long after the date [July 29] that presents the deadline for TPS eligibility. This is not the way to come to the United States.
Obviously, many thousands disagree.
This report has been culled from numerous online sources, including Yahoo News.