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US forces conduct mass expulsion of Haitian migrants from Texas

Over 12,000 migrants were camped around a bridge in the border town of Del Rio.

THE US IS flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to Haiti and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico.

It could become one of America’s swiftest large-scale expulsions of migrants in decades.

More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights yesterday and Haiti said six flights are expected tomorrow.

US authorities aim to expel many of more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.

It plans to begin seven daily expulsion flights from Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a US source.

Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said.

When the border was closed yesterday, the migrants initially found other ways to cross the Rio Grande nearby until they were confronted by federal and state law enforcement.

An Associated Press reporter saw Haitians still crossing the river into the US about 1.5 miles east of the previous spot, but they were eventually stopped by Border Patrol agents on horseback and Texas law enforcement officials.

Agents shouted at the migrants who were crossing in the waist-deep river to get out of the water. The several hundred who had crossed and were sitting along the river bank on the US side were ordered to the Del Rio camp.

Mexico said it would also begin deporting Haitians.

A government official said the flights would be from towns near the US border and the border with Guatemala, where the largest group remains.

Haitians have been migrating to the US in large numbers from South America for several years, many having left their Caribbean nation after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the US border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle.

Some of the migrants at the Del Rio camp said the recent earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of President Jovenel Moise make them afraid to return to a country that seems more unstable than when they left.

Since Friday, 3,300 migrants have already been removed from the Del Rio camp to planes or detention centres, Border Patrol Chief Raul L Ortiz said.

He expected move 3,000 of the approximately 12,600 remaining migrants within a day and aimed for the rest to be removed within the week.

“We are working around the clock to expeditiously move migrants out of the heat, elements and from underneath this bridge to our processing facilities in order to quickly process and remove individuals from the United States consistent with our laws and our policies,” he said at news conference at the Del Rio bridge.

The Texas city of about 35,000 people is about 145 miles west of San Antonio.

The rapid expulsions were made possible by a pandemic-related authority adopted by former president Donald Trump in March 2020 that allows for migrants to be immediately removed from the country without an opportunity to seek asylum.

President Joe Biden exempted unaccompanied children from the order but let the rest stand.

Any Haitians not expelled are subject to immigration laws, which include rights to seek asylum and other forms of humanitarian protection. Families are quickly released in the US because the government cannot generally hold children.

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    Mute tom pepper
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    Sep 20th 2021, 2:07 PM

    They should build a wall to keep them out.

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    Mute Margaret
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    Sep 20th 2021, 1:48 PM

    I wonder will there be any international push to renegotiate the UN refugee convention? Both the UK, US and most European countries seem to be pushing back against arrivals

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    Mute John Fagan
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    Sep 20th 2021, 2:12 PM

    I’m glad Biden is bringing about all those changes.

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    Mute james s
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    Sep 20th 2021, 2:04 PM

    Is trump back in office?

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    Mute Will
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    Sep 20th 2021, 2:14 PM

    @james s: “Is trump back in office?”

    Biden’s handling of the border crisis has been so bad that a judge recently ordered him to reinstate certain Trump immigration policies.
    He’s making a speech to the UN General Assembly tomorrow, should be fun.

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    Mute james s
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    Sep 20th 2021, 5:46 PM

    @Will: that’s my point. But if it was trump can you imagine the headlines. Actually you don’t have to imagine, just go back 2 1/2 years.

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    Mute Christopher Mulrooney #WeAreStarfleet
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    Sep 20th 2021, 3:23 PM

    Now fly the illegal Irish out of America and back here where they belong it’s only fair to do so.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:38 PM

    @Christopher They’re all paying taxes and would be jobless here, then homeless – is that really what you want, and why?

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    Mute brendan o connell
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    Sep 20th 2021, 2:57 PM

    Some one in government has a spine

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    Mute bread of heaven
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    Sep 20th 2021, 3:36 PM

    Poor people. Haiti is a disaster since it was destroyed by Hillary Clinton.

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    Mute Christopher Mulrooney #WeAreStarfleet
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    Sep 20th 2021, 4:03 PM

    @bread of heaven: You really have a thing for her don’t you? If i didn’t know better i would think you were in love with her.

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Sep 20th 2021, 5:49 PM

    Its hard to believe that these people encamped around a bridge on the US/Mexican border could be made worse off, but that exactly what the USA has done by returning them to Haiti.

    Haitians have been victims of poverty, dictatorship and natural disasters for generations, since the early 1825, when the formerly enslaved Haitians were forced to compensate their French slave owners to the tune of the current equivalent of $21 Billion US dollars, for having the audacity to revolt against the French, the lastest thing they have suffered being the massively destructive 7.2 magnitude earth quake, just a few weeks ago on the 14th of August 2021.

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    Mute Liz O'Neill
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    Sep 20th 2021, 6:15 PM

    Presumably, these Black Lives don’t Matter.

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    Mute Watchful Axe
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    Sep 20th 2021, 5:28 PM

    It’s amazing that a country as powerful and wealthy as America doesn’t act like a rising tide for surrounding countries. I bet you could argue it has a detrimental effect.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:39 PM

    @Watchful Axe: It’s extraordinary that the US can’t think of any way to help a struggling neighbour country.

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