Joe Biden administration to deport migrant crowd in Texas border town.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has said it will begin rapidly deporting thousands of Haitian migrants crossing the US-Mexico border and gathering under a bridge in the border city of Del Rio in the south central American state of Texas.
The Biden administration has planned three flights for Sunday, and more flights could be scheduled in the coming days, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a leading US daily.
As part of the Department of Homeland Security’s plan, the Biden administration will “accelerate and increase capacity” to divert flights to Haiti and other destinations over the next 72 hours, the report said.
The White House temporarily halted deportation flights to Haiti after the August earthquake, which was followed by weeks of civil unrest, a powerful tropical storm, the report said.
More than 14,000 Haitians are reportedly camping under the Del Rio International Bridge, which numbered in the hundreds about 10 days ago. They are waiting to convert themselves to the US Border Patrol and seek refuge.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday directed the state’s Department of Public Security and the Texas National Guard to close six points of entry on the US-Mexico border, saying the border crisis is “so dire” that the U.S. . Customs and Border Protection agents are “overwhelmed by the chaos”.
Arrests at the US-Mexico border have reportedly been the highest in more than two decades, with more than 208,000 recorded in August alone.
.