Migrants cross back and forth between the United States and Mexico at the Rio Grande in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, on September 16, 2021. Thousands of predominantly Haitian migrants have arrived in the area in recent days, following rumors that entry into the U.S. would be accessible through Del Rio, Texas.
Photograph by Sergio Flores, The Washington Post via Getty Images

Photos capture desperation as Haitian migrants hope for asylum at Texas border

More than 14,000 migrants seeking U.S. asylum have converged at a temporary camp at the U.S.-Mexico border.

ByTucker C. Toole
September 17, 2021
7 min read

Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas who made the long, dangerous trek to try to get into the United States are now being sent back to their homeland, even though many fled the Caribbean nation years ago. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday began deportation flights to Haiti as the number of migrants on the border swelled to more than 14,000.

Immigration authorities in Del Rio have been scrambling to contend with thousands of predominantly Haitian migrants who have arrived on the border over the past week seeking asylum. The first flights to Haiti began on Sunday with 320 migrants landing in Port-au-Prince aboard three chartered flights. Authorities said the deportation flights would continue.

Thousands of Haitian migrants seeking asylum wait to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, on September 16, 2021. U.S. officials said the number of migrants waiting at a temporary camp near the border swelled to more than 14,000 over the weekend.
Photograph by Verónica G. Cárdenas, The New York Times via Redux

Many arriving in Haiti said they were not told they would be flown back to a country they fled years ago and is currently in turmoil with both the brazen assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July, which remains under investigation, and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in August.

“How could they bring us back here?” Johnson Bordes, 23, told the The Washington Post upon arrival in Haiti. He left at the age of 12 following the deadly 2010 earthquake and has no family there. Like many others, he and his family fled to South America before making the trek to the U.S. border. “This is an injustice. I don’t even know where we are going to sleep tonight.”

Migration authorities and expelled migrants walk off a plane on September 19, 2021 at the airport in Port-au-Prince. After weeks on the road, traversing mountains and jungles, thousands of Haitian migrants hoping to reach the United States instead found themselves stranded in Mexico and returned to Haiti.
Photograph by Richard Pierrin, AFP via Getty Images
Haitians who were deported from the United States arrive at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on September 19, 2021. Thousands of Haitian migrants have been arriving to Del Rio, Texas, to ask for asylum in the U.S. as authorities begin to deport them to back to Haiti.
Photograph by Joseph Odelyn, AP

The mass deportation is unprecedented. Only once  since 2014 has the United States deported more than 1,000 people to the country, The New York Times reported.

 Haitian authorities also are overwhelmed with the influx of migrants returning at such a rapid rate.

“Fourteen thousand people are expected to descend on us here,” Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, head of Haiti’s Office of National Migration, told the Miami Herald. “It is too much.”

More than 14,000 migrants—many of whom had been living in Mexican cities—made the trek to the Texas border after rumors spread that migrants would be able to gain entrance into the United States through Del Rio, the Miami Herald reported. Thousands are now camped out under the international bridge.

U.S. authorities, on May 16, 2021, look out at the Rio Grande dividing Mexico and the United States. The U.S.-Mexico border has seen a significant increase in the number of border crossing attempts. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 200,000 crossings took place last month.
Photograph by Sergio Flores, AFP via Getty Images
Migrants, mostly from Haiti, carry buckets as they walk back toward the Rio Grande in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. Thousands of Haitian migrants have arrived at the border in Del Rio, Texas, in recent days seeking U.S. asylum.
Photograph by Sergio Flores, The Washington Post via Getty Images
Haitian migrants rest on the side of a highway near Huixtla, Mexico, on September 2, 2021. A group of Haitian and Central American nationals faced toughened migration control hours after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed to prevent migrant caravans from trekking further north.
Photograph by Alejandro Cegarra, Bloomberg via Getty Images

“The majority of the people who are at Del Rio are people who have been in Mexico a very long time but in other cities, for example Tijuana,” Guerline Jozefa, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance told the Miami Herald. “There are a lot of rumors that if you go to Del Rio, you might be able to get access, so people just flooded Del Rio.”

Del Rio is one of many entry points along the Southwest border where authorities have seen a spike in the number of migrant crossings throughout the past year. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 200,000 crossings took place last month, bringing the total number during the past fiscal year to 1.5 million.

Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, blamed the spread of misinformation for the humanitarian crisis developing on the border.

“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 that presents the deadline for TPS eligibility,” Mayorkas said in a call with journalists. “This is not the way to come to the United States.”

Migrants cross the Rio Grande on March 22, 2021 at night in an attempt to get from Ciudad Juarez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, to El Paso, Texas. Authorities have seen a spike in the number of illegal crossings in recent months.
Photograph by Pedro Pardo, AFP via Getty Images

In response to the unfolding crisis in Del Rio, authorities are beefing up the law enforcement presence there. Officials have also blocked pathways to enter Texas through Mexico.

Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano likened conditions in the camp under the bridge to a shantytown, with limited access to necessities like bathrooms, clean water, or food, the Times reported. He said residents of the border city of 35,000 are anxious about the developing humanitarian crisis.

Tiffany Burrow, operations director for the Val Verde Humanitarian Border Coalition’s migrant respite center, told the Times that the influx of migrants is straining the city’s ability to provide essential services.

“We can’t help that many people,” Burrow said. “The city is not going to sustain all these people. The city under the bridge could become bigger than Del Rio.”

This story was updated on September 20 with latest developments.