They had arrived by the thousands on September 9 in the small Mexican border town of Texas, in Ciudad Acuna, massing on both sides of the border. The last migrants, mainly Haitians, left their makeshift camps, according to the US government and journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the spot Friday, September 24, after failing to return to the United States. They got into vans with their belongings and took them to shelters, AFP observed.
Earlier, the US Minister of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced at a press conference at the White House that “Today we have no more migrants in the encampment under the bridge” from the city of Del Rio, Texas, which numbered up to 15,000 people including many Haitians at the end of last week.
About 2,000 people were deported by plane to Haiti, 8,000 returned voluntarily to Mexico, 5,000 were transferred to shelters and 12,400 were able to leave the site and will have to report to an immigration judge. to defend their asylum claim, he said.
In total, according to Mr. Mayorkas, 30,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, lived in the heat and unsanitary conditions after crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna. This massive influx of migrants and the treatment suffered by some, pushed back by border police officers on horseback as they crossed the river, drew an avalanche of criticism from the Biden administration, deemed inhuman by the left and lax. from the right.
In a photo taken Sunday by an AFP photographer, a border guard on horseback grabs a man by his t-shirt on the American shore. On another, he keeps a group at bay by turning his reins, in a threatening posture, to force them to turn back. These pictures, which have been around the world, have caused a stir in the United States. Some saw migrants there equated to cattle, others recalled the mistreatment of African Americans by mounted police, prison guards or slave owners.
“There will be consequences”
Joe Biden, who has yet to speak publicly on the matter, vowed on Friday that those agents would « payer » for these acts “Scandalous”. “I promise you, these people will pay, there will be an investigation, there will be consequences”, he told reporters. US authorities have already opened an investigation and temporarily suspended mounted border police operations around Del Rio. “It’s not who we are”, said the Democrat, who had promised during his campaign to treat immigration issues humanely, to distinguish himself from Donald Trump who swore only by repression and the construction of a wall on the border.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki then defended the president’s muscular remarks, citing “A very human and visceral response to these images”. The Democratic left wing denounces the expulsion of Haitians to a country plunged into a political, security and humanitarian crisis.
These evictions, authorized under the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, “Are dictated by public health imperatives”, assured Alejandro Mayorkas. The government has not behaved well “Immoral”, he added, stressing that the right to asylum was governed by strict rules.
The right criticizes the laxity of the authorities which, according to it, causes a call for air at the southern border. “Instead of responding to the border crisis he created and actively encouraged, President Biden blindly joins the radical left in making hasty judgments and attacking the women and men who are tasked with protecting our borders.”, launched the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
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