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The U.S. is currently deporting thousands of Haitian immigrants many of whom were born in other South American countries. The U.S. government is using a Trump-age policy by the name of Title 42 to deport all of these immigrants by flight. The speed and size of the operation could make the operation one of the hugest and most sudden U.S. deportation campaigns of migrants by air. Biden and his administration stand by their reasoning of COVID concerns and refuses to stop the mass deportation despite the outcries of many refugee supporters.
The migrants are being packed into ICE and other migrant compounds and were even chased by agents riding on horseback with whips in hand. The images and videos depicting the inhumane treatment of the migrants created even more outrage from many American citizens and government officials and was the cause of an internal investigation about excessive use of force by the migrant agents. Some families with young children are allowed to stay in the U.S. but the vast majority of the migrants are being deported.

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I agree with Isacson's belief that Haiti is not in a position to accept all the immigrants at such a fast rate. The Haitian government itself even asked for a deportation moratorium as they don't think the country can handle it. I was also appalled at the fact that there were people who believed all the immigrants should be deported. The lack of regard for human life really shines through.

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Biden denounces 'horrible' treatment of Haitian migrants at border

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The fact that agents thought it was okay to use horses and whips to try to control the immigrants is mind-boggling. I understand that they probably have limited resources and they are forced to make do with what they have but the despicable treatment of the deportees is borderline evil.

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The rule that makes some families with specific circumstances exempt from deportation is good but it needs to be more applicable. In 2 out of the 3 articles they noted that only a select few were actually able to take advantage of this rule. In addition I think the conversation about treating people more humanely needs to be held in a more widespread way that includes those who support the deportation to accentuate its importance and show them that it is not okay under any circumstances.

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Haitian Migrants Follow Dangerous Path To U.S.

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Texas border town reckons with Haitian influx

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Although many migrants are being forcefully deported some are being allowed to stay under certain circumstances. One family of 2 was allowed to travel to Florida to stay with family and some families with small children or pregnant women are also being allowed to stay in the country. Despite the few who are permitted to stay the vast majority of the migrants are kept in terrible conditions and given a “Notice to Appear” order, entering them into the court system for a deportation hearing which is often years away.

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Haitians deported from the United States arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Monday. Credit... Federico Rios for The New York Times

Even as more than 1,000 Haitian migrants were deported between Sunday and Tuesday, thousands of others are being allowed into the United States, sometimes to request asylum - and are being released with instructions to report to immigration officials at a future date.

Faced with an unusually high number of Haitians who began crossing the border into Del Rio, Texas, late last week, the Biden administration responded with high-profile repatriation flights, which officials hope will deter others from making the trip here. There are five flights planned for Wednesday, according to an official familiar with the plans, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and thus spoke on condition of anonymity.

The sudden appearance of thousands of Haitian migrants overwhelmed Border Patrol agents in Del Rio last week. At one point, some 15,000 crammed under and around a bridge in squalid conditions while they waited to be briefly interviewed by border officials. To relieve the overcrowding, the administration has flown many of the migrants to less crowded spots on the southern border; most are being released from Border Patrol custody with a "Notice to Appear" order, which formally enters them into the immigration court system for a deportation hearing - often years away.

The response to the latest sharp increase in migrants crossing the border illegally has appeared chaotic and raised questions about the administration's immigration enforcement policies.

The Homeland Security Department is investigating possible mistreatment of some migrants, an inquiry the secretary told lawmakers on Wednesday would be done "in days, not weeks."

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with the secretary, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, on Tuesday. Ms. Harris's spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, said the vice president told Mr. Mayorkas about "the need of all C.B.P. agents to treat people with dignity, humanely and consistent with our laws and our values," referring to Customs and Border Protection.

And a new security concern emerged on Tuesday when some Haitian migrants on a deportation flight "caused two separate disruptions on the tarmac" when they deplaned in Port-au-Prince, said Marsha Espinosa, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department. She said three Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and an unspecified number of members of the flight crew suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The Biden administration is using an emergency rule that the Trump administration put in place at the beginning of the pandemic to deport the migrants, who are being flown back to Haiti. The administration has sought to continue the rule - issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - which critics say is less about preventing the spread of Covid-19 and more about keeping migrants out of the country. For a range of reasons, the rule is not always consistently enforced across the border, which immigration advocates have said is leading to confusion among migrants about trying to enter the United States.

Eduardo Maia Silva, a Homeland Security spokesman, said the migrants who are not deported under the public health rule and do not have a legal reason to stay, "are placed in expedited or full removal proceedings."

He said, "Individuals who are not immediately repatriated are either placed in 'Alternatives to Detention,' detained in an ICE facility, or released with a legal document," referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Neither the Homeland Security Department nor Customs and Border Protection answered a question on Wednesday about how many of the migrants arriving in Del Rio are being allowed into the country and how many are being deported.

One woman, Joselyne Simeus, a native Haitian who had been living in Chile for seven years, was among the migrants who waded across the Rio Grande last week and crossed illegally into the country with her 5-year-old son, joining the thousands waiting under the bridge. She claimed asylum and called herself "lucky," because she and her son were not forced to immediately return to Haiti but instead planned to travel to Florida to stay with family.

The Haitian government has asked the United States for a deportation moratorium out of concerns that the country, battered from natural disasters and political upheaval, cannot handle the number of Haitians being repatriated.

Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting from Del Rio, Texas.

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Even as the Biden administration deports some Haitian migrants, it is letting in others.

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Even as more than 1,000 Haitian migrants were deported between Sunday and Tuesday, thousands of others are being allowed into the United States, sometimes to request asylum - and are being released with instructions to report to immigration officials at a future date.

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On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with the secretary, Alejandro N. Mayorkas. Ms. Harris’s spokesperson said their conversation consisted of “the need of all C.B.P.(Customs and Border Protection) agents to treat people with dignity, humanely and consistent with our laws and our values.”

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This document goes more in-depth into the tactics being used on the immigrants. As seen in the thumbnail agents were seen riding horseback and some carried lariats, a type of lasso/whip in attempts to corral the immigrants. there is a video going around, in which an agent on horseback can be heard yelling at a migrant man who clustered with a group of women and children, "This is why your country's s--t, because you use your women for this."This inhumane treatment sparked passionate responses from not only American citizens but also from Democratic Lawmakers who found the situation horrifying. The controversy led to the beginning of an internal investigation, whose findings DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas plans to make public.

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The Biden administration has demobilized units of Border Patrol agents on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, following controversy over the tactics they employed recently to disperse Haitian migrants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday

"We have ceased the use of the horse patrol in Del Rio temporarily," a DHS official said during a briefing with reporters. "We'll prioritize other methods for identifying individuals who might be in medical distress."

The suspension comes days after news outlets captured video and photos showing mounted Border Patrol agents aggressively dispersing migrants near Del Rio. Some footage showed Border Patrol agents swinging lariats, a type of rope used by horse riders, while trying to impede the passage of Haitian migrants.

In one video, an agent on horseback was heard telling a migrant man who huddled with a group of women and children, "This is why your country's s--t, because you use your women for this."

The compilation of videos and photos sparked outrage among advocates for immigrants, Democratic lawmakers and top officials in the Biden administration, including Vice President Kamala Harris and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, both of whom called the footage horrifying.

"What I saw depicted about those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were was horrible," Harris said Tuesday. "Human beings should never be treated that way."

Earlier this week, DHS pledged to "swiftly" investigate the incidents and take disciplinary actions if warranted, saying the department does not tolerate the abuse of migrants in its custody. The case was also referred to the Office of Inspector General at DHS.

Mayorkas told lawmakers on Wednesday the internal investigation should conclude by the end of next week and that he plans to make its findings public.

In the meantime, the Border Patrol agents at the center of the investigation have been placed on administrative duty and banned from interacting with migrants, Mayorkas said.

The uproar over the conduct of some Border Patrol agents is the latest flashpoint in the Biden administration's struggle to address a rapid and massive increase in Haitians arriving in Del Rio, a border sector that does not have the infrastructure to process and house large groups of migrants.

The spike in border arrivals, coupled with the emergence of a squalid camp underneath a bridge in Del Rio that was housing as many as 15,000 migrants at one point last weekend, prompted the administration to dramatically increase deportations to Haiti.

Since Sunday, the U.S. has expelled more than 1,400 Haitians to their homeland under Title 42, a public health authority that authorizes the quick removal of migrants and denies them a chance to seek asylum.

Those deportations have also garnered criticism from progressive lawmakers and advocates for asylum-seekers, who believe the U.S. should not be sending people to a country still reeling from a deadly earthquake, political turmoil worsened by the killing of its president in July, rampant insecurity and deep-rooted poverty.

Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized the administration for allowing some Haitian migrants to stay in the U.S. while they continue their immigration court cases.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez

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U.S. suspends use of mounted Border Patrol units in Del Rio, Texas

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The Biden administration has demobilized units of Border Patrol agents on horseback in Del Rio, Texas, following controversy over the tactics they employed recently to disperse Haitian migrants, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday "We have ceased the use of the horse patrol in Del Rio temporarily," a DHS official said during a briefing with reporters.

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Deportees arriving at the Haitian airport

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This source gives the numbers and speaks about the condition of Haiti as a whole and whether it is able to accept all of the refugees. Some 4,000 Haitian migrants were deported in just nine days on flights from the U.S. to Haiti. They mentioned that a $100 per-person stipend that was being given out to those who got off the planes but that doesn't make the situation better. Adam Isacson, who is an analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America, said he doesn't believe "Haiti can really absorb thousands of homeless people, many of whom don't have family or support networks in the country, in this short amount of time,"  In addition to rampant gang violence and the assassination of their president, Haiti has just undergone a massive earthquake making the country very unstable. Many American citizens are outraged, with many republicans wondering why all the migrants weren't deported and democrats wondering why the mass deportations are even happening. Joe Biden however justifies his decision due to the risks of COVID-19 and a 20% infection rate in the migrant camps.

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In just nine days, the U.S. has expelled nearly 4,000 Haitian migrants, including hundreds of families with children, without allowing them to seek asylum as part of an ongoing deportation blitz to a country ravaged by natural and man-made calamities.

The Biden administration has carried out the mass expulsions under an emergency pandemic-era policy known as Title 42 that was first enacted under former President Donald Trump, to the dismay of advocates for asylum-seekers and Democrats.

The pace and scale of the expulsions to Haiti, a country where deportation flights were suspended last month because of a deadly earthquake, could make the operation one of the swiftest and largest U.S. deportation campaigns of migrants by air.

Between September 19 and September 27, 37 U.S. expulsion flights landed in Haiti with 3,936 migrants on board, including 2,300 parents and children who entered U.S. border custody as families, according to Department of Homeland Security data.

"Many, if not all" of those expelled in Haiti previously lived in Chile, Brazil and other South American nations and have not been in their homeland for years, exacerbating the disruption caused by the U.S. expulsions, said Giuseppe Loprete, the chief of mission for the Port-au-Prince-based chapter of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

About 44% of the deportees Haiti has received since September 19 are women and children, according to IOM. More than 210 of the deportees are children born in Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama who were expelled with their Haitian-born parents, Loprete said.

Loprete, whose organization has been assisting deportees at the Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien airports, said he has seen Haitian migrants expelled by the U.S. visibly frustrated and distraught after deplaning.

"They're very distressed. They start crying the moment they arrive. I've seen young, strong guys - some freak out," Loprete told CBS News. "Women cry. Kids cry because they see the women crying."

At the two airports, IOM has been distributing meals, hygiene kits, feminine products and a per-person stipend equivalent to $100 that deportees can use to pay for food, clothes, transportation, phone calls and other necessities, Loprete said. The organization also has one mental health counselor on-site.

The deportees are tested for the coronavirus by Haiti's public health ministry at the airports, where Red Cross units have also been deployed. After their processing is completed, they are taken to a bus station, Loprete said. The deportees are then responsible for reaching their respective destinations in Haiti.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said it is providing $5.5 million to IOM so it can serve deported Haitians. Despite the financial support from the U.S., some experts and officials, including a top American diplomat to Haiti who resigned this month over the expulsions, have questioned whether Haiti can adequately absorb thousands of deportees.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, continues to be beset by rampant insecurity, gang violence and political turmoil that was exacerbated by the July assassination of its president.

"I don't think Haiti can really absorb thousands of homeless people, many of whom don't have family or support networks in the country, in this short amount of time," Adam Isacson, an analyst for the Washington Office on Latin America who monitors migration issues, told CBS News. "It's probably going to work to the advantage of gangs and extortionists who pretty much run vast parts of Port-au-Prince. These people are going to be exploited."

The Biden administration's treatment of Haitian migrants encountered along the southern border has garnered an intense and rare flurry of bipartisan criticism.

U.S. officials last week cleared a massive camp that became the chaotic symbol of the rapid arrival of 30,000 migrants, many of them from Haiti, in Del Rio, Texas. But the issue has remained in the national spotlight, with Republicans blasting the administration for not expelling all the migrants and Democrats outraged that the expulsions are taking place in the first place.

Roughly 13,000 of the migrants recently encountered in Del Rio were processed under U.S. immigration laws and allowed to have a hearing before a judge, including 3,000 who were sent to detention centers, according to DHS data. An estimated 8,000 returned to Mexico voluntarily, while another 4,000 remain in U.S. custody awaiting expulsion or release.

Citing the dire conditions in Haiti, top Democratic lawmakers like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have urged the administration to stop the expulsion policy, which they have called a relic of President Trump's "inhumane" immigration agenda.

In July, when it granted Temporary Protected Status, a humanitarian form of deportation relief, to certain Haitians already in the U.S., the Biden administration recognized that Haiti was "grappling with a deteriorating political crisis, violence, and a staggering increase in human rights abuses."

Asked how that decision squared with the recent assessment that deportations to Haiti could continue, DHS Secretary Mayorkas said on Monday that the August earthquake was "geographically" limited.

"Working with Haiti, we felt it possible to return people to Haiti," Mayorkas said during the annual Immigration Law and Policy conference, conceding that the assessment has not "achieved unanimity of opinion."

The Biden administration has been using the Title 42 public health authority to expel Haitians, DHS officials told reporters last week, noting that some vulnerable migrants, like pregnant women, could be exempted from the policy on a case-by-case basis.

The use of this Trump-era policy, however, is currently in legal jeopardy. The U.S. will be barred from processing migrant families with children under Title 42 starting Friday unless a federal judge's order from earlier this month is paused by an appeals court.

On Monday, Mayorkas said the Biden administration would not "embrace" the Title 42 expulsions if they were part of an "immigration policy." He called the measure necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in migrant holding facilities, citing "a rate of illness of approximately 20%" among migrants.

In a court filing Monday defending the continued enforcement of Title 42, Justice Department lawyers called the expulsion policy "a significant deterrent to the entry of family units."

"That the Title 42 expulsion policy is actually about immigration politics, and not about public health, is clear from the number of medical experts who have lined up to condemn it in the strongest possible terms," Lee Gelernt, the top American Civil Liberties Union attorney challenging the expulsions, told CBS News.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez

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U.S. expels nearly 4,000 Haitians in 9 days as part of deportation blitz

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The deportees, including hundreds of families with children, are returning to a country ravaged by natural and man-made calamities.