Mayorkas admits 30,000 Haitian migrants entered US as Del Rio camp is finally cleared: Homeland Security boss DOUBLES previous figure as he reveals 17,400 are applying to stay, 8,000 have been deported - but 2,600 are missing

  • Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed on Friday that nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants have been encountered on the US-Mexico border 
  • He also noted camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, which serves the length of the border, has been emptied of thousands of migrants
  • 'Nearly 30,000 migrants have been encountered at Del Rio since September 9 with the highest number one time reaching approximately 15,000,' he said 
  • But, he noted, 'today, we have no migrants remaining in the camp' 

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed on Friday that nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants have been encountered on the US-Mexico border as they try to enter the country.

Additionally he noted that the camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, which serves the length of the border, has been emptied.

'Nearly 30,000 migrants have been encountered at Del Rio since September 9 with the highest number one time reaching approximately 15,000,' he said at the daily White House press briefing.

Meanwhile the BBC reported nearly 19,000 mostly Haitian migrants are heading towards the US. They are in Colombia waiting to cross the border to Panama, Colombian officials say. 

But, Mayorkas noted, 'today, we have no migrants remaining in the camp.'  

He revealed that  2,000 have been expelled on 17 flights, 8,000 have returned to Haiti voluntarily, 12,4000 are having their cases heard and 5,000 being processed 

That leaves 2,600 missing. Officials have said some have returned to Mexico. 

It comes after President Joe Biden on Friday vowed the border agents on horseback who tried to stop migrants crossing the into the US will 'pay' and face the ‘consequences’ of their actions.

The president called the photos of agents on horseback intercepting migrants 'horrible to see'.

However the photographer who took the controversial images said the border agents did not whip the Haitian migrants – after it was wrongly and widely reported that they did. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed on Friday that nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants have been encountered on the US-Mexico border

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed on Friday that nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants have been encountered on the US-Mexico border

Biden, who failed to address how to solve the border crisis in his remarks, said: ‘It was horrible what to see, as you saw, to see people treat like they did - horses running them over, people being strapped.

‘It's outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. There will be investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It's an embarrassment.

'But beyond an embarrassment is dangerous, it's wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world, and sends the wrong message at home. It's simply not who we are.

He was slammed by Meghan McCain in her DailyMail.com column who blamed him for encouraging the 15,000 Haitian migrants to come to the US.

‘But if Biden started actively sending migrants home, he would offend The Squad and their progressive constituencies whose wrath seems to terrify him,’ she said.

Photographer Paul Ratje, who took the images, said he didn't see anyone being whipped.

'I've never seen them whip anyone,' Ratje told KTSM-TV. The still images actually depict the mounted agents swinging the long reins of their horses, not holding whips.

'He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you're looking at the picture,' said Ratje, who shot the photos from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river.

It came as Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday compared the images to the brutality of slavery.

Harris went beyond earlier comments labeling the treatment 'horrible,' during an appearance on ABC's 'The View'. 

'Human beings should not be treated that way and as we all know it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country. Has been used against African Americans during times of slavery, and so I'm glad to know that that [Alejandro] Mayorkas the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is taking it very seriously,' she said.

Slide me

The photo on the left shows the makeshift migrant camp under the Del Rio bridge in Texas teeming with people on Tuesday. On the right, workers clear debris from the site on Friday

A Texas judge who has been keeping tabs on the number of migrants in the camp said only 'stragglers' remained of up to 15,000 people who camped on the banks of the Rio Grande

A Texas judge who has been keeping tabs on the number of migrants in the camp said only 'stragglers' remained of up to 15,000 people who camped on the banks of the Rio Grande

Workers remove barricades from the Port of Entry after the migrant camp was cleared along International Bridge in Del Rio. Picture taken with a drone

Workers remove barricades from the Port of Entry after the migrant camp was cleared along International Bridge in Del Rio. Picture taken with a drone

Heavy machinery was brought in on Friday to level the site of the camp and remove piles of debris after the removal of the migrants

Heavy machinery was brought in on Friday to level the site of the camp and remove piles of debris after the removal of the migrants 

Migrants walk through a makeshift border camp along the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas

Migrants walk through a makeshift border camp along the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas

Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens, who has been keeping tabs on the number of people in the encampment, said only 'stragglers' remained of up to 15,000 people who camped on the banks of the Rio Grande bordering Mexico a week ago.

‘The last body was removed from the camp at 11:41 am,’ Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told DailyMail.com.

Throughout the morning the last of those who had taken up residence in the squalid camp by the Del Rio International Bridge were bused to the offices of the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition in Del Rio.

There they were processed before being placed on charter buses bound for Houston or San Antonio. They have ten days to report to authorities in those cities and given a court date.

Some sat outside the Coalition’s single story building for hours, others were placed on a bus within minutes of arriving. One couple — the one dreadlocked woman clearly in some distress — got a seat almost immediately. 

A Reuters witness said the shanty town-like jumble of makeshift shelters and tents had all but disappeared by Friday afternoon, with workers clearing the last debris, as seen in newly released photos from the scene.

It's a dramatic change from last Saturday, when the number peaked as migrants driven by confusion over the Biden administration's policies and misinformation on social media converged at the border crossing connecting Del Rio, Texas, and Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

At a news conference, Del Rio Mayor Buno Lozano called it 'phenomenal news.'

Many of the migrants face expulsion because they are not covered by protections recently extended by the Biden administration to the more than 100,000 Haitian migrants already in the US, citing security concerns and social unrest in the Western Hemisphere´s poorest country.  

A man carries a child as he waits in line with other migrants seeking asylum in the US to board a bus to Houston from Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition after being released from US Customs and Border Protection on Friday

A man carries a child as he waits in line with other migrants seeking asylum in the US to board a bus to Houston from Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition after being released from US Customs and Border Protection on Friday

Several hundred Haitian have been released from detention in Texas on Friday

Several hundred Haitian have been released from detention in Texas on Friday 

Images of a US border guard on horseback unfurling a whip-like cord against Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande sparked widespread outrage

Images of a US border guard on horseback unfurling a whip-like cord against Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande sparked widespread outrage 

 As well as the Biden administration's contentious use of expulsion flights that have carried at least 1,400 back to instability in Haiti, Mexico has also sought to bus and fly Haitians to its southern states, far from the US border.

Thousands more are in US detention centers and several hundred have been released in Texas.

On Friday, Reuters reported that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had formally asked Brazil to receive some of the Haitians from the camp, according to two sources with knowledge of the request.

Many of the Haitians arriving at the US border had previously lived in Brazil and Chile, while others have transited through the South American countries.

President Joe Biden has faced widespread criticism in recent days over the expulsions to Haiti, including in a sternly worded resignation letter from the US Special Envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, who said the Caribbean nation was a collapsed state. 

The US government in May extended temporary protection from deportation to Haitians in the United States, citing a political crisis, rights abuses, crime, and lack of access to food, water, and healthcare in the Western hemisphere's poorest country.

Since then, Haiti's president has been assassinated and it suffered a destructive earthquake.

Foote's resignation followed widespread outrage stirred up by images of a US border guard on horseback unfurling a whip-like cord against Haitian migrants.

On Friday, President Joe Biden said the way the agents used their horses was 'horrible' and that 'people will pay' as a result. The agents have been assigned to administrative duties while the administration investigates. 

'There will be consequences,' Biden told reporters. 'It's an embarrassment, but it's beyond an embarrassment - it's dangerous, it's wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world and sends the wrong message at home. It's simply not who we are.'

At least five more flights taking Haitians from the border camp were scheduled on Friday, flight tracking website Flightaware showed.

 

 'Those people will pay': Biden warns Border Protection agents will face 'consequences' for debunked claim they 'strapped' migrants, despite photographer saying he saw no such thing - as Kamala compares it to SLAVERY 

President Joe Biden on Friday vowed the border agents on horseback who tried to stop migrants crossing the into the US will 'pay' and face the ‘consequences’ of their actions.

The president called the photos of agents on horseback intercepting migrants 'horrible to see'.

However the photographer who took the controversial images said the border agents did not whip the Haitian migrants – after it was wrongly and widely reported that they did.

Biden, who failed to address how to solve the border crisis in his remarks, said: ‘It was horrible what to see, as you saw, to see people treat like they did - horses running them over, people being strapped.

‘It's outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. There will be investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It's an embarrassment.

'But beyond an embarrassment is dangerous, it's wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world, and sends the wrong message at home. It's simply not who we are.

He was slammed by Meghan McCain in her DailyMail.com column who blamed him for encouraging the 15,000 Haitian migrants to come to the US.

‘But if Biden started actively sending migrants home, he would offend The Squad and their progressive constituencies whose wrath seems to terrify him,’ she said.

Photographer Paul Ratje, who took the images, said he didn't see anyone being whipped.

'I've never seen them whip anyone,' Ratje told KTSM-TV. The still images actually depict the mounted agents swinging the long reins of their horses, not holding whips.

'He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you're looking at the picture,' said Ratje, who shot the photos from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river.

It came as Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday compared the images to the brutality of slavery.

Harris went beyond earlier comments labeling the treatment 'horrible,' during an appearance on ABC's 'The View,' after the agents who were photographed seeking to corral Haitian immigrants were pulled back to the office amid an investigation.

'Well, first of all, I've been very clear about the images that you and I both saw of those law enforcement officials on horses – I was outraged by it. It was horrible and and deeply troubling. There's been now an investigation that has been conducted, which I fully support and there needs to be consequences and accountability.'

'Human beings should not be treated that way and as we all know it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country. Has been used against African Americans during times of slavery, and so I'm glad to know that that [Alejandro] Mayorkas the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is taking it very seriously,' she said.

Progressive Democrats and members of the Congressional Black Caucus were particularly outraged by the images, also comparing them to slavery.

White House officials have publicly condemned the photos and officials met with black lawmakers to reassure them they were taking the matter seriously. But Friday marked Biden's first public comments on the situation.

Images emerged earlier this week of U.S. Custom and Border patrol agents on horseback using their reins to chase after migrants, the majority of who were Haitians. Critics compared the photos - there was no video footage - to images of slavery, accusing agents of whipping people.

Agents insist they were not using whips against the migrants, 15,000 of whom set up a makeshift camp underneath and around the Del Rio International Bridge over the last few weeks.

They argued they were only using the reins to ward off immigrants.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the agents will not use horses at the border while the incident is investigated.

And he revealed on Friday that there were no longer any migrants in the camp underneath the Del Rio International Bridge.

'Nearly 30,000 Migrants have been encountered at Del Rio, since September 9 with the highest number one time reaching approximately 15,000. Today, we have no migrants remaining in the camp,' he said during an appearance in the White House daily press briefing.

He comment came amid confusion about where the Haitians are going. Some have been puts on flights back to their country. Others have been released in the United States while their asylum cases are reviewed. But it remains unanswered about where a few thousand of them are located.

DHS said on Thursday that of the 15,000 under the bridge: 1,401 were sent back to Haiti on 12 flights, 3,206 remain in custody, and 5,000 are camped out beneath the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.

This left 5,000 unaccounted for. Mayorkas has now indicated that 2,000 have been released, but mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of the further 3,000.

Mayorkas was asked repeatedly about how many Haitians have been released into the US pending the outcome of their immigration proceedings – and repeatedly declined to provide a specific numerical figure.

'We believe it is a very small percentage of the total that assembled in Del Rio Texas, and that will be removed,' Mayorkas responded, on a day when the US special envoy for Haiti resigned in protest of US policy on deportations.

The squalid border camp which held up to 15,000 at one point last weekend has now shrunk to under 3,000, as immigration officials rushed to release thousands of migrants into the US, but another camp is growing across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

The camp had swelled to some 15,000 migrants at one point, with thousands seen wading across the Rio Grande River daily. Many are Haitians who were previously granted asylum in Chile, with some Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also present.

Mexican forces have surrounded a second camp that is growing on the Mexican side of the border, where some migrants are gathering to assess their chances of successfully entering the US illegally.

Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) is starting to return migrants to the southern Mexican city of Tapachula so they can file asylum applications there.

'We're not taking them out of the country,' INM chief Francisco Garduno told Reuters. 'We're bringing them away from the border so there are no hygiene and overcrowding problems.'

Telling migrants eyeing the U.S. side of the border that it would be better to process claims before the media disappeared from Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, INM agents swept through the camp on Thursday beseeching them to go back to Tapachula.

'We're giving you this option,' INM official Montserrat Saldana told a cluster of migrants circled around her. 'All of you who cross the river are going straight to Haiti.'

Meanwhile, US special envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote resigned on Wednesday because he didn't want to be involved with the 'inhumane' deportation of Haitian migrants.

'I will not be associated with the United States [sic] inhumane, counterproductive, decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs in control of daily life,' Ambassador Foote wrote in his resignation letter.

In the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Foote said another reason for his resignation is that his recommendations to help Haiti have been 'ignored and dismissed'.

'Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed,' Foote continued, 'and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.'

A State Department spokesperson accused Foote of 'mischaracterizing the circumstances of his resignation' and said some of his ideas were deemed 'harmful.'

'[A]ll proposals, including those led by Special Envoy Foote, were fully considered in a rigorous and transparent policy process,' a statement from the spokesperson reads. 'Some of those proposals were determined to be harmful to our commitment to the promotion of democracy in Haiti and were rejected during the policy process.'

'For him to to say that his proposals were ignored is simply false,' the person added.

The statement claims: 'It is unfortunate that, instead of participating in a solutions-oriented policy process, Special Envoy Foote has both resigned and mischaracterized the circumstances of his resignation.'

Psaki reiterated the sentiments from the statement during her Thursday briefing, saying: 'I'm not going to detail that further.'

Foote blamed Biden for making things worse in Haiti by backing the 'unelected' leader after the coup, claiming that 'picking the winner' will produce 'catastrophic results'.

'Last week, the U.S. and other embassies in Port-au-Prince issued another public statement of support for the unelected, de facto Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry as interim leader of Haiti, and have continued to tout his 'political agreement' over another broader, earlier accord shepherded by civil society,' he wrote.

Foote added: 'The hubris that makes us believe we should pick the winner – again – is impressive.'

'This cycle of international political interventions in Haiti has consistently produced catastrophic results,' he said. 'The negative impact to Haiti will have calamitous consequences not only in Haiti, but in the U.S. and our neighbors in the hemisphere.'

This year alone, around 1.3 million migrants were apprehended by Customs and Border Protection.

 

Kamala compares the border crisis to ’SLAVERY’: VP says images of Border Protection agents trying to push back Haitian immigrants ‘evoked images of the worst moments of our history’ 

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday compared images of US Border Patrol Agents seeking to push back Haitian immigrants gathered in Del Rio Texas to the brutality of slavery.   

Harris went beyond earlier comments labeling the treatment 'horrible,' during an appearance on ABC's 'The View,' after agents photographed seeking to corral Haitian immigrants pulled back to the office amid an investigation.

'Well, first of all, I've been very clear about the images that you and I both saw of those law enforcement officials on horses – I was outraged by it. It was horrible and and deeply troubling. There's been now an investigation that has been conducted, which I fully support and there needs to be consequences and accountability.'

Harris, the nation's first black vice president, continued: 'Human beings should not be treated that way and as we all know it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country. Has been used against African Americans during times of slavery, and so I'm glad to know that that [Alejandro] Mayorkas the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is taking it very seriously,' she said.  

But the photographer who took the controversial pictures at the Texas border says that the images have been dramatically misinterpreted.

'I've never seen them whip anyone,' Paul Ratje told KTSM-TV. The still images actually depict the mounted agents swinging the long reins of their horses, not holding whips.

'He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you're looking at the picture,' said Ratje, who shot the photos from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river. 

Meanwhile, President Biden promised on Friday the border agents in question would 'pay.'

'It was horrible what to see, as you saw, to see people treat like they did - horses running them over, people being strapped. It's outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. There will be investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It's an embarrassment. But beyond an embarrassment is dangerous, it's wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world, and sends the wrong message at home. It's simply not who we are,' he said. 

'Human beings should not be treated that way and as we all know it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history,' VP Kamala Harris said on ABC's 'The View' when asked about border agents using horses to push back Haitian immigrants

'Human beings should not be treated that way and as we all know it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history,' VP Kamala Harris said on ABC's 'The View' when asked about border agents using horses to push back Haitian immigrants

Harris appeared to be picking up a line of argument from senior Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who made the same analogy earlier this week. She met with CBC members this week amid outrage from lawmakers about US policies sending Haitians back to their country following storms, an earthquake, and political turmoil.

Waters called the actions by border agents 'worse than slavery days' while Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) called it 'white supremacist behavior.'

'We're saying to the president and everybody else: You've got to stop this madness,' Waters said during a press conference.

'And I want to know, in the first place, who's paying these cowboys to do this work?' she continued. 'They've got to be gotten rid of. They've gotten to be stopped. It cannot go on.' 

Harris compared the conduct of border agents to that 'used against African Americans during times of slavery'

Harris compared the conduct of border agents to that 'used against African Americans during times of slavery'

She called images of what she saw 'horrible.' A border agents' union said the riders were using split reins, rather than whips

She called images of what she saw 'horrible.' A border agents' union said the riders were using split reins, rather than whips

By Thursday, the White House announced that agents would no longer use horses at Del Rio. 

A border agent union said the agents were using split reins, not whips, as a method of controlling their horses. Harris kept her comments to the images, and avoided precise words about the conduct being probed. 

Still photographic images of the events show agents chasing down Haitian migrants, with reins in motion. Videos also show agents using horses to chase down migrants. 

Harris, who spoke remotely from New York after two cohosts on 'The View' tested positive for the coronavirus, also blasted the conduct she saw in comments earlier this week.

'What I saw depicted, those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were was horrible,' she said. 

On Friday, President Joe Biden made his own first comments on the matter – saying people were being 'strapped.'

President Joe Biden called the images of agents pushing back Haitians 'horrible to see'

President Joe Biden called the images of agents pushing back Haitians 'horrible to see'

Slave Cabin, Barbour County near Eufaula, Alabama, USA, from Federal Writer's Project, 'Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives', United States Work Projects Administration, 1936

Slave Cabin, Barbour County near Eufaula, Alabama, USA, from Federal Writer's Project, 'Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives', United States Work Projects Administration, 1936

He called the images 'horrible to see' but didn't address the greater situation at the border, where thousands of migrants are camped out under a bridge as they wait to see if they can get into the United States.

'It was horrible what to see, as you saw, to see people treat like they did - horses running them over, people being strapped. It's outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. There will be investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It's an embarrassment. But beyond an embarrassment is dangerous, it's wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world, and sends the wrong message at home. It's simply not who we are,' he said. 

Asked about providing greater opportunities for Haitians to get asylum, Harris was noncommittal.

'I feel very strongly, the president feels very strongly, we've got to do more,' she said. 

'We have to do more in terms of supporting the Haitians who are returning to the island and returning to Haiti,' as well as doing more 'to support Haiti.'

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