Hopeful Haitians denied at US-Mexico border

On a Friday evening in mid-September, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it was immediately closing the Del Rio, Texas, Port of Entry.

At that moment, the spotlight was focused directly on about 15,000 migrants, nearly all Haitians, sheltering under the international bridge just north of the Rio Grande.

The migrants had camped out for days near the port of entry with high hopes of legally making their cases for asylum in the U.S.

Many had made their way to the encampment through two popular crossings along the Rio Grande only to find a bottleneck of people from their homeland. The Haitians —many fathers, mothers and their children — quickly learned that food, water and shelter were in short supply in the camp on U.S. soil.

Even worse, the crowd of migrants discovered that U.S. and Mexican authorities, at the Biden administration's urging, were about to kick off a border crackdown.

In seven days in September, the binational partnership would choke off the flow of Haitians from southern Mexico to Ciudad Acuña and Del Rio. U.S. agents would empty the camp by Sept. 24.

More than 2,000 migrants were expelled back to Haiti, many retreated from Del Rio to back to Mexico and a few were granted permission to remain in the U.S. as their asylum cases are reviewed.

It was the latest dramatic setback for Haitian migrants who have been on a two-decade struggle to find better lives after natural disasters, a total state collapse and violent gang rule in their homeland.

At the U.S.-Mexico border, the Haitians faced Mexican immigration sweeps on the streets of Acuña, an encounter with U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback and a removal campaign that left people asking, "Where did all the Haitian migrants go?"

Daniel Foote, the U.S. special envoy for Haiti, resigned during the humanitarian crisis, writing in his resignation letter:

"I will not be associated with the United States' 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." 

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