DEL RIO, Texas — The situation at an impromptu migrant camp in Del Rio is expected to get worse in the coming days, according to a conversation between the congressman who represents the area and the Washington Examiner.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, a first-term Republican, predicted Tuesday that based on the intelligence and information he receives from federal and state law enforcement, community leaders, residents, and the U.S. and Mexican governments, the migrant camp at the international bridge may soon implode.
“Del Rio is going to get bad. It’s going to get real bad in Del Rio. And the reason being is there’s still this impression that ‘come to Del Rio and you’ll be released,’” Gonzales said in a phone call.
‘FEELS LIKE ANOTHER COUNTRY’: ON THE GROUND AT THE DEL RIO MIGRANT CAMP
“Once you start expelling these migrants, once they start realizing that they’re being expelled there, they’re going to be unruly. There’s no doubt,” Gonzales continued. “If you’re Haitian, you’ve been living in Chile for let’s say five years [and] … you were told, ‘Hey, come to the United States, it’s wide open.’ You pay a cartel $3,000, you make this trek, you come here, you wait under a bridge for three days, four days, whatever it is in the blistering hot sun.”
“Then all of a sudden you’re being told, ‘Hey, we’re going to fly you back to Haiti,’” Gonzales said, paraphrasing federal law enforcement. “There’s a lot at stake, and a lot of people aren’t going to accept that. Right? So, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Gonzales said he told Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas his agency should remove everyone in the camp as quickly as possible — far faster than the several thousand removed thus far —because it would avoid thousands being left behind only to learn they may be deported.
Tensions are building, and migrants are already refusing to be deported, as evidenced by a recent hijacking of a federally contracted bus that was transporting Haitian migrants when some people on board overtook the vehicle and escaped. Some fled the bus and were arrested in the vicinity hours later.
“It’s just an absolute powder keg just waiting to happen,” Gonzales said. “And from the migrants’ standpoint, if you’re starting to see people be sent back to their country of origin … As that word of mouth spreads, one way or another, that’s either going to attract more people to come down, or it’s going to attract even more of a chaotic situation.”
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Gonzales is worried about how federal agents and state law enforcement would respond to violence aimed at them.
Some Democrats and the media accused horse patrol agents of “whipping” migrants, although this has been denied by the Border Patrol. DHS is investigating the matter.
