Thousands of Migrants Huddle in Squalid Conditions Under Texas Bridge
Category: News & Politics
Via: texan1211 • 3 years ago • 80 commentsBy: James Dobbins, Eileen Sullivan and Edgar Sandoval (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
DEL RIO, Texas — Thousands of migrants were crowded under a bridge outside the border community of Del Rio on Thursday, part of a massive surge in migration across the Rio Grande this week that has overwhelmed the authorities and caused significant delays in processing the arrivals.
© Veronica G. Cardenas for The New York Times Migrants gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge as they waited to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol and seek asylum.
The U.S. Border Patrol said that more than 9,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti, were being held in a temporary staging area under the Del Rio International Bridge as agents worked as quickly as they could to process them.
The temporary camp has grown with staggering speed in recent days, from just a few hundred people earlier in the week. The authorities and city officials said they expected thousands more to cross the ankle-deep river between Mexico and Del Rio in coming days.
The Border Patrol said it would send more agents to the region, "to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process." The shaded area under the bridge, the Border Patrol said, was to "prevent injuries from heat-related illness" while migrants were waiting to be taken into custody.
The scene — of dense crowds sleeping on dirt or milling about in triple-digit heat amid conditions of deteriorating sanitation — drew condemnations from local officials. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas ordered the state police and the National Guard to assist border agents in Del Rio, saying the federal response had not been enough to quell the surge in crossings.
"The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan," he said, referring to President Biden's decision to end America's longest war.
The Southwest border has been inundated in recent months with a surge in unauthorized crossings not seen in more than two decades. More than 200,000 people crossed last month, bringing the total this fiscal year to more than 1.5 million.
But in recent days, the swelling crowds in Del Rio, a town about 150 miles west of San Antonio that is surrounded by ranch land, acres of thorny brush and towering mesquite trees, have created a new humanitarian challenge.
© Veronica G. Cardenas for The New York Times People crossing the Mexico and U.S. borders near the Del Rio International Bridge, on Thursday.
Bruno Lozano, the city's mayor, described on Thursday squalid conditions under the bridge that more so resembled a shantytown, with little access to clean water and food and just a few portable toilets. The vast majority of those who arrived appeared to be fleeing Haiti, the Caribbean country still reeling from a series of natural disasters and the assassination in July of its president, Jovenel Moise, local officials said.
"There are 9,000 people really anxious and stressed," said Mr. Lozano, who has asked federal officials to support his city of 35,000 residents.
The Del Rio border sector has seen high migrant traffic this year, particularly from Haitians who started arriving in much higher numbers beginning in June, when there were more than twice as many caught crossing the border illegally than in the previous month. And the numbers continued to go up in July and August, according to recent border statistics.
© Veronica G. Cardenas for The New York Times "There are 9,000 people really anxious and stressed," said Bruno Lozano, mayor of Del Rio, Texas, who has asked federal officials to support his city of 35,000 residents.
Earlier this week, even more Haitians were caught trying to cross through the Del Rio region, a desolate 245-mile stretch of the United States border with Mexico. By Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security sent additional officers to the region to help relieve the backup, according to an official familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
The government also plans to fly some of the migrants to other parts of the border that are not experiencing a surge like Del Rio's. And return flights to Haiti are set to begin on Monday, as well, which the Biden administration hopes will signal to other Haitians that they should not try to cross the southern border.
The administration has come under intense pressure from Republicans for its handling of the border. In recent months, Mr. Abbott instructed state law enforcement to arrest migrants for trespassing to deter illegal immigration, because, he said, the Biden administration was not.
While the Biden administration had discussed repealing a Trump-era public health rule put in place at the beginning of the pandemic that blocked many asylum seekers from coming into the country, the administration ultimately put off plans because of the high number of migrants crossing the southern border illegally and the resurgence of the coronavirus in recent months.
© Veronica G. Cardenas for The New York Times Asylum seekers who had been processed by immigration officials walked into the Val Verde Humanitarian Border Coalition's respite center to receive food and help buying bus tickets.
But on Thursday, a judge in Texas ordered that the administration stop turning migrant families away under the public health rule, starting in 14 days. Because of humanitarian exemptions and other reasons, the administration has only been turning away a fraction of the families who have been caught at the southern border. In August, it used the public health rule to turn away about 18 percent of the families that crossed the border without documentation, according to recent border data. But any increase in processing migrants into the country could strain the already-stretched system.
© Veronica G. Cardenas for The New York Times Yanet, 36, left, who is six months pregnant, and her partner Otto Jesus, 47, had traveled from Cuba to seek asylum in the United States.
This latest surge in Del Rio comes during a small management shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security, with the secretary's chief of staff, the assistant secretary for border and immigration policy and the top prosecutor at Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announcing plans to leave the agency at the end of the month.
The city of Del Rio, located in a southwest patch of the state on the Edwards Plateau, just across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, has experienced a relentless wave of migration since this spring, in part because its remoteness makes it easier to cross, officials said.
Immigration agents were releasing so many migrants into town in March that residents complained that the spike would drain the town's limited resources. Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state's Department of Public Safety, said dozens of arrests for criminal trespassing, of migrants crossing illegally, had overwhelmed the local jails.
"We have to put the pressure and deter the activity," said Mr. Escalon, who is leading Operation Lone Star, a program created by Mr. Abbott this year that allows him to send resources and hundreds of state agents to border communities.
Tiffany Burrow, the operations director for the Val Verde Humanitarian Border Coalition's migrant respite center, said she worried the group's resources would not be enough to accommodate this week's deluge.
"We can't help that many people," Ms. Burrow said. "The city is not going to sustain all these people. The city under the bridge could become bigger than Del Rio."
In typical times, the group helps about 300 migrants a day connect with transportation to their final destination in the United States.
By late afternoon on Thursday, the immense crowds of adults and children could be seen crammed beneath the bridge in the sweltering heat. Many could expect to wait up to two weeks before being processed by border agents and then taken to a shelter, officials said.
Among those waiting were a couple from Cuba who are expecting their first child. On Thursday, they watched with growing distress as the amount of people awaiting processing grew to unimaginable numbers.
"The conditions are not good," said Yanet, 46, who preferred not to use her last name. "I had to take a bath in the river. There was a lot of dust under the bridge."
While waiting, the migrants have access to 22 portable toilets but no running water. They mostly feed themselves with food bought in Mexico, running back and forth across the Rio Grande. At night they sleep on packed dirt beneath the bright glare of floodlights, surveillance equipment and armed border guards.
James Dobbins reported from Del Rio, Eileen Sullivan from Washington, and Edgar Sandoval from San Antonio.
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Way to go, America.
This is what some of you voted for.
Are you proud now?
I wonder if Kamala Harris will ever actually DO anything about this "not a crisis" which really is one?
Or if she is content to follow Biden's lead and continue to encourage illegal aliens?
Another view.
Didn't realize the FAA considered a bridge a no fly zone for drones. More than likely one of Joe's handlers got a hold of them and told them to turn it into one.
.
As one of our members pointed out - only Fox News seems to be covering it!
ABC News Australia is covering it. The Border Patrol is using horses to herd the migrants to holding areas in preparation to being put on a US government chartered plane and returned to country of origin. From what I have read, Biden is denying entry to the Haitians in Del Rio, but not to migrants from south of the border using other entry ports. If true, why are other migrants being allowed entry via other ports and only Haitians being returned?
Could it be due to Haitians escaping what Biden and the Democrats are attempting to establish? They wouldn't feely vote for that. (Nobody with a half brain would vote for that.) But illegals pouring over the border with everything Democrats have promised pushes them to the left.
quick! go rent a passenger van and drive to del rio. this is a prime opportunity to cut back of the house labor costs at that greasy spoon by 50%!!! don't forget to stiff the ex-employees on their accrued PTO, sick days, and vacation pay.
/s
Stay on topic or please leave.
that's rich. fuck off
No, don't think I will.
Last warning, stay on topic or leave.
Thank God the border is so secure under Biden and Harris that only thousands of people are forced to huddle under a bridge in squalid conditions, and not millions.
Give it time, folks, give it time. Biden and Harris will get us there yet!
Another massive failure of competence by Biden and the Democrats. They’ve gotten what they want on the border.
And yet, some fine folks will continue to pretend that nothing wrong is going on at the border.
I suppose pretending Biden and Harris are doing a fine job is probably much easier than admitting the disaster they have helped create.
If people in Haiti feel like they need to leave their homeland in order to have a decent , safe, life, where do you suggest they go if not the United States? This has nothing to do with Biden, it has to do with human tragedy.
There are other countries.
There is also a way to immigrate here legally.
What has Biden and Harris done--actually DONE--to stem the flow of immigrants due to their fucked-up policies?
Of course it's Biden's fault
So it's President Biden's fault that Haiti was devastated by a hurricane and political turmoil?
The same people that cheered separating migrant families and locking children in cages, are suddenly concerned about migrant conditions in Texas? Color me skeptical.
No.....that was Obama's scandal..
I meant to say an earthquake
Obama is that you? Because you did the exact same damn thing separating families and locking children in cages; and your sheeple didn't give a damn then.
Color me skeptical that the left give a damn about a single one of these illegal immigrants. They wanted the border to be overwhelmed and the system to be overloaded; well they got what they wished for. Now they have to take care of the people; and this isn't taking care of them!
This is what happens when immigration laws and border enforcement are completely ignored by the Democrats.
Do you mean those Obama/Biden cages? Those same cages that have been expanded quite a bit under the Biden/Harris regime?
More lies.
Yep, Obama was putting kids in cages. Some even circulated the very photos from the above article claiming it was under Trump.
I have no idea what the solution is but every time I see the faces of small children and even babies being abandoned near the border it breaks my heart. I can’t help but wonder how many aren’t found.
When it has been proven over and over, why keep denying the truth?
Here--AGAIN:
Did Obama Admin Build Cages That House Immigrant Children at U.S.-Mexico Border? | Snopes.com
Speaking truth about the Obama/Biden now Biden/Harris cages will get you seriously harassed by morons who don't accept facts.
Trump had a good policy. As a migrant myself having come to the states in 1955, I know my dad did so legally. He was brought here as an engineer to work in the aerospace industry. What the Democrats want is open borders and anyone from anywhere to come here. They are currently asking the parliamentarian if adding amnesty and a path to citizenship to the 3.5 trillion dollar "reconciliation" bill would be permitted. That would add at least twenty plus million people the population and as permanent legal residents they would then be able to bring in additional family members. You would be looking at the "fundamental transformation" of America from a capitalist democratic republic to a Marxist plutocracy.
Heartbreaking. The media and Biden supporters choose to just ignore the ongoing abandonment of little babies being deserted or thrown over walls, very sad.
I guess it’s a good thing that I could care less what some morons have to say. Especially when they have no idea what they are talking about.
Denial, deflection, and projection are all some have.
Your house, Pelosi’s place or any sanctuary city.
Yes it is. Biden is totally at fault for this crisis.
I know for a fact that there is ample room in a mansion in Marthas Vineyard that could use some additional help, they do have those massive parties after all. Other places might be, at least temporarily anyway, the White House. They could aid in the silver alert searches.
I'm sure Gates could probably take in a few in his 66,000 plus square foot mansion considering he and Melinda are not together.
There are all sorts of people on the far left in Hollywood who could likely use permanent gardeners and such. The places to house these people is huge if the people supporting their arrival would only step up and do the right thing to put their money where their mouth is for a change.
In defending its “zero tolerance” border policy that has caused the separation of families, the Trump administration has argued that the Obama and Bush administrations did this too. That’s misleading. Experts say there were some separations under previous administrations, but no blanket policy to prosecute parents and, therefore, separate them from their children.
You seem awfully determined to prove something completely different from what Tessylo said. Everyone knows the Obama administration built the cages, but it was the Trump administration that used them to kidnap and imprison thousands of children.
The Haitians are under Trump's bridge?
Amazing you can write that AFTER reading my link, where it proves the Obama Admin. did it , too.
Once again you should an amazing lack of reading comprehension. Read my comment again.
Same as it ever was.
Okay, that's fine. We'll just, once again, chalk it up to an unwillingness to comprehend it, [deleted]
Here's a novel idea. They stand up for themselves. They take control of their country. It happens all over the world.
This has virtually EVERYTHING to do with Biden and the Democrats.
Thanks for the facts and truth of the matter Ozz. Something seriously lacking otherwise here.
No, IT DOESN'T.
Wonder how many Democrats are going down there to help with Biden's crisis of the week?
AOC might be planning a trip.
Thing is, she can pose in front of the bridge this time when she "cries" instead of looking at an empty parking lot.
Unless Joe and Kamala talk her out of it because they don't want their failure highlighted.
AOC doesn't do that type of thing anymore. She has hit the big time. It is 30,000 a ticket galas for her; with custom made dresses from top designers from now on. She can't be ruining her image by actually going to where the real problems are; she is a Democrat after all!
I don't know, maybe she'll plan a "victory tour" to celebrate the demise of the bipartisan bill in Congress because she wants the HUGE bill to pass, too!
She's done crying over parking lots, she's moved on to being the top one percent of the one percent's pet socialist at their celebrations of decadence that double as tax shelters.
She didn't pay for the dress or the ticket.
And she now has to deal with a second ethics complaint because of that.
Well, of course she didn't. Democratic socialists are all about spending other people's money.
Bogus ethics complaints.
No, legitimate complaint filed.
Completely bogus.
AOC seems to be a waste of human flesh.
We know who the wastes of human flesh are.
Yes, now WE do since I informed you.
It's not Ms. Ocasio-Cortez
I just read where you said we know.
What is it you know?
No kidding? Really? She didn't pay? Where the hell did I say she paid for anything for the event?
One of the 1 percenters she hates so much paid her way in; and for the dress. She is taking gifts just like every other grifting politician she loves to rail against.
Being a politician is just a gimmick for her; she already knows where the real money is at- and that is being a social media darling with causes. The one percent have already bought and paid for her. She can rail against them all she wants; so long as she doesn't accomplish anything.
Has she said one damn word about the current border crisis? Does this situation with thousands being held, and thousands more coming, under a bridge even show up on her social radar?
“She didn't pay for the dress or the ticket.”
The we’ll want to see that on her income tax return.
Ya gotta look up April Olsen. I don’t know about ‘wasteful’.
Nonsense. Complete nonsense.
Her photo op will be on a bridge right there in DC. Like the VP, she won't go anywhere near the real issue.
Where are the COVID TESTS and VACCINE MANDATES!!
Increasing our migrant population seems to be a higher priority for the Biden/Harris Admin..
Increasing the Democrat voter base is the highest priority!
I didn't know migrants were allowed to vote.
Of course it is. What they plan to bury in the 3.5 trillion bill is immigrant amnesty with a path to citizenship. In fact they're asking the parliamentarian if it is legal to do so.
That will mean about twenty million illegal aliens will receive amnesty and be permitted to stay here for perpetuity plus the hundreds of thousands of Afghans that are being 'paroled' into America as they have no legitimate previous work with America in any situation and paroled as we have no means to verify or validate their previous history.
BIDEN LIED - AMERICANS AND OTHERS DIES AND WERE LEFT BEHIND.
Thanks to the DPSM's (Democrat/Progressive/Socialist/Marxist) of america.
That's all a lie. [deleted]
Ignorant nonsense.
Seems you missed it, yet again, that the Democrats want 8 million DACA and others to become full US citizens; that is a part of their porkulus "infrastructure" reconciliation bill. They are trying to get the Senate Parliamentarian to agree that it belongs in the bill.
I surprised they didn't as for 30 or 40 million. Maybe they think 8 million new voters positioned in red and swing states will allow them to win the federal elections and put enough Democrats in the House and Senate- that they can pass a general amnesty for the rest and secure their power forever.
Bingo !
Actually it's more like 20 plus million. At least per a MIT study. But we all know MIT and Yale are right wing institutions (s).
I hear that our dear leader uncle Joe was guilt shamed into allowing the Fox News drone to fly again near that bridge.
Well, where are the churches feeding the masses like Jesus? Where are Republicans on providing solutions or aid?
Climate change isn't real to Republicans and that is what they feed their base while failing to address mass migration from floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters that destroy entire island systems and decimate countries, including our own.
If Republicans stood by while the Katrina disaster unfolded they are not going to help with this either, other than spin some idiot right wing talking points about "immigrants" never, ever looking at why the immigrants are displaced and addressing the root causes.
Problems like this are solved by asking the questions, who, why what, when, where and how and providing solutions instead of talking points. Republicans have used this dividing issue for 50 years without ever actually addressing it and just saying "keep them out" when an entire country has been nearly wiped out by a hurricane. Where do you put them if there is no country to send them to after a natural disaster?
Any more than 50 years of Republicans in red states and border states glad handing their corporate donors to allow illegal immigration for cheap labor behind closed doors for years, and years. They knew all the time they were letting it happen but it did not matter since they can scapegoat a Dem even though Republicans continually get re-elected with anti-immigrant rhetoric they are actually responsible for. If a Democrat wasn't the governor and Democrats did not hold majority elected office in these states they cannot be continually blamed for a problem that the Republicans elected to power did not address.
Biden and the Democrats are in charge now aren't they?
It wasn't the Republicans that opened the southern border and rang the dinner bell for illegal immigrants to come to this country. That would be Biden and the Democrats; and they haven't done jack shit to stop them. Biden did warn Haitians and Cubans not to make the dangerous ocean voyage to the US. So they came in through Mexico instead using our wide open southern border just like everyone else. But it seems they are the wrong type of black for Biden; and he is deporting them with haste. Wish he would do that with every last illegal immigrant; but it seems he likes Latinos.
Hurricanes and natural disasters have been going on forever; so have the Democrat ambitions for a wide open border; and general amnesty. Also, the US is not the number 1 polluter in the world anymore. China has doubled our output; and India is gaining fast.
Democrats still haven't answered who is going to pay for this shit? Taking care of all of these illegal immigrants will be expensive. Chasing corporations back overseas will not help pay the bills; and the Democrats are in the back pockets of the rich just as much as Republicans are. Biden is forcing the border states to pay for everything now; but at least the media beat him down to send aid to Del Rio- run by a Democrat who was begging for his help!
In case you missed it states don't control the international border with Mexico; that is the Federal government; and the Democrats now rule the roost. Every time a red state makes a move to secure their southern border with Mexico the Biden Administration takes them to court.
Democrats are great at making worthless climate deals that waste US tax payer dollars and accomplish nothing. Until the whole world sits down and talks seriously about world population control nothing will improve.
Lol...
It's Republicans fault that Democrats block any meaningful attempt at border security?
The current disaster at the border is the fruition of democratic plans. You should be celebrating it..
I am sure Republicans want to do something, but they aren't in charge. And apparently, if wanting to do something doesn't include blanket amnesty, it is nixed by Democrats.
And yet, Democratic Administrations continue to sue red states you are complaining about because IMMIGRATION IS SUPPOSED TO BE HANDLED BY THE FEDS. ANY CHANCE OF BIDEN DOING THAT ANYTIME DURING HIS TERM?