By Bob Price The Biden administration will reportedly begin expelling thousands of Haitian migrants to their home country beginning on Sunday. Multiple news outlets report that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will begin flights on Sunday to move the migrants gathered under a border bridge in Texas back to Haiti.
The Associated Press reports that the Biden administration plans “widescale expulsion of Haitian migrants” who are currently being detained under the Del Rio International Bridge. More than 12,000 mostly Haitian migrants are currently being held in the Texas border region.
The details on the numbers of flights per day vary based upon different sources. The AP reports there will be between five and eight flights per day. NBC News reports there could be between eight to ten per week. The flights will continue each day except for Saturdays — 12 flights per week.
Sources within U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Breitbart Texas that two flights will depart from the United States and carry more than 200 Haitian migrants back to their home country.
The source says some flights previously scheduled to remove the Haitians have been canceled for unknown reasons but expects this round of flights to continue as planned. The migrants will be taken from the makeshift camp under the Del Rio International Bridge and transported to a processing center in Eagle Pass, Texas. Once processed, the Haitian migrants will be manifested and turned over to ICE Air Operations Branch for their removal flights.
CBP officials announced the closure on Friday evening of both international bridges in Del Rio, Breitbart Texas reported. The move following action by Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano to close down the toll plazas at the Del Rio International Bridge.
Dire circumstances require dire responses,” Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said, according to the Texas Tribune. “There’s people having babies down there [under the bridge], there’s people collapsing out of the heat. They’re pretty aggressive, rightly so — they’ve been in the heat day after day after day.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded by sending Department of Public Safety troopers, National Guardsmen, and Humvees to the region to provide assistance.
“President Biden’s complete lack of concern for Americans who are in the direct path of the crisis he’s created is appalling,” Governor Abbott’s spokesman Rene Eze said in a statement. “The record-breaking surges of thousands of migrants and the incompetent response show the utter disarray within the Biden Administration.”
“Governor Abbott has talked with Del Rio Mayor Lozano and is directing state resources and personnel to the region, including additional DPS troopers and National Guardsmen, as well as Humvees,” Eze continued. “TxDOT is expediting the erection of barriers to provide assistance. Texas continues to step up to secure the southern border and protect Americans.”
The migrants will be returned immediately without the opportunity to apply for asylum under the Trump administration’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) emergency COVID-19 Title 42 authority. The order calls for the immediate return of migrants, generally at entry. In the case of the Haitian migrants, many have been physically present in the United States for days or weeks, which is outside previously applied protocols that saw many migrants returned to Mexico within two hours.
The source says primarily single adult migrants will be a priority but some family units may be removed on the flights as well.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
