When thousands of Haitians – like Dachka and Exode – arrived in the unlikely border town of Del Rio, Texas, they hoped they were crossing the finish line of an arduous immigration journey. But when the U.S. started flying some families back to Haiti (including their South American children) migrants were forced to make a critical decision: stay in the U.S. migrant camp and risk expulsion – or return to Mexico.
Read more reporting from the Houston Chronicle: Inside the brutal 10,000-mile journey Haitian migrants make in search of a home
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Line in the Land
A new podcast from Texas Public Radio and the Houston Chronicle
When 16,000 Haitians arrived in Del Rio, Texas in September 2021, the humanitarian crisis made international headlines. But the unlikely spectacle at the Texas-Mexico border was just a glimpse of an immigration journey like no other – one that extends more than 10,000 miles, from the rubble of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, through South America... all the way to Del Rio and the Houston suburbs.
For the first season of Line in the Land, Texas Public Radio and the Houston Chronicle explore the human story behind this Haitian odyssey, along with the seismic forces at play – immigration policies, U.S.-Haiti relations and the unfulfilled promise to rebuild Haiti.
