JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Confusion and chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border as thousands of Haitian migrants seek a better life. The issue has become an urgent matter for the mayor of Del Rio, Texas.
“Because we have unlimited crossings, the Border Patrol is unfortunately strained to its limit beyond limit now here in the Del Rio sector. And we just don’t know who’s crossing and that leads to a whole other set of variables, terror, threats, safety threats, and people that just want to target a vulnerable population,” said Mayor Bruno Lozano.
The Department of Homeland Security is ramping up deportation efforts. DHS is moving about 2,000 migrants from the camp to other locations.
The United States could begin flying some of the thousands of Haitian migrants who have crossed from Mexico into a Texas border camp back to their poverty-stricken homeland on Sunday, hoping to deter others from crossing into the country.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is taking charge of the process.
“Some are going to Arizona, others are going to California. Others may be going to Loretta,” said Gov. Abbott.
Many of the Haitians currently at the border are believed to have been living in South America since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
But the toll of the pandemic on the region is what motivated the migration. Abbott says U.S. Border agents are overwhelmed by the chaos.
Gov. Abbott has now signed a one-point-eight-billion-dollar bill funding border security in the state in response to what’s happening at the border.