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The US has made a distinction between Afghan refugees and the other vulnerable populations arriving at Americas doorstep. And its a false one.

Afghans fleeing Taliban rule have so far occupied a unique space in the immigration policy debate. In a climate where immigration has become a political wedge, there has been overwhelming bipartisan support for resettling at least some of them in the US: Polling has shown that 76 percent of Republicans and 90 percent of Democrats back resettlement efforts for Afghans who aided US troops. When it comes to other asylum seekers, the numbers are starkly different. For example, 64 percent of registered voters believe Biden needs to institute stricter policies at the southern border.

What makes Americans sympathetic to Afghan refugees compared to other people seeking protection? Some rightly feel a moral responsibility to protect those who were forced to leave their home due to their governments ill-conceived and failed nation-building efforts, especially those who worked alongside American forces.

But what may also be a factor is that the Afghan war was also the kind of faraway conflict typically associated with the sort of refugees the US has historically admitted, like Somalis fleeing ongoing civil war in their home country.

Complicating this idea, however, is the fact that the kind of persecution and peril Afghans face in their home country is markedly similar to that faced by asylum seekers arriving on the US-Mexico border. Those from Central Americas Northern Triangle Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are fleeing brutal gang violence, extortion, and government corruption, which are compounded by poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and climate-related issues. The same is true of many other groups as well, like the thousands of Haitians gathered in Del Rio, Texas.

Though the US has not fought a 20-year war in the Northern Triangle or in Haiti, it has played a direct role in creating the societal ills people are running away from, meaning the moral obligation many feel America has toward Afghans ought to extend to migrants from those countries as well.

That, of course, hasnt been the case. Often invoking racist dog whistles, Republicans have falsely painted them as criminals who threaten public safety, carriers of disease, or economic migrants who want to skip the line of legal US immigration. Democrats have not necessarily been much better: The Obama administration detained migrant families on a large scale and told them dont come while the Biden administration has maintained Trump-era policies, effectively blocking all asylum seekers from gaining access to protection amid the pandemic despite claiming to take a more humane approach.

Afghan refugees deserve protection. But so do the other vulnerable populations arriving at Americas doorstep. The Afghan refugee crisis has clarified this in a way other recent mass migration movements have not, and it also presents a unique opportunity for the US to recalibrate its policy about who is worthy of American protection.

Some Americans whether they are veterans, Afghan Americans, or just witnesses to the USs longest war feel a personal connection to and ownership of the Afghanistan crisis that has motivated them to step up in refugees moment of need, even if they might not otherwise take a liberal stance on immigration issues.

Their support often extends beyond Afghans who worked alongside American troops in the US. Anecdotally, refugee advocates say they have seen people who didnt directly aid the US war effort including Afghan NGO workers, gender rights activists, and other at-risk minority groups receive a bipartisan welcoming.

Theres a debt many Americans understand and seem eager to repay, Krish OMara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said. They know the courage and generosity of Afghans who risked their lives to protect ours and that weighs on them. They feel a responsibility to meet our military maxim of leaving no one behind.

On top of that, the US hurried evacuation of Afghanistan played out on worldwide broadcasts, featuring searing images of people desperately clinging to a military plane mid-takeoff and parents who lifted their babies over the Kabul airport wall and into American soldiers arms. That helped put a face to the crisis and galvanize American public support.

But Americans dont feel the same ownership over the issues driving migrants to seek refuge at the southern border, as is their right under US and international law. Thats despite the fact that many of those migrants face real danger in their home countries, leaving them just as vulnerable and desperate to flee as Afghans.

Haitians are afraid to return home on account of a political crisis stemming from President Jovenel Moses July assassination, resultant gang violence, and the one-two punch of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and a tropical storm that left about 2,200 dead and thousands more injured or missing. In their desperation, some of those who have been sent back on deportation flights have even tried to force their way aboard planes heading back to the US, believing there is nothing left for them in Haiti.

And the Northern Triangle countries have some of the highest rates of poverty and violent crime in the world. Migrants are commonly robbed, kidnapped for ransom, raped, tortured, and killed. Each country has rampant government corruption and high rates of violence against women and LGBTQ individuals and remains a hot spot for international criminal gang activity, some of which has roots in the US.

The pandemic-related economic downturn and a pair of hurricanes late last year that devastated Honduras and Guatemala have only exacerbated those more longstanding problems.

It may not be the Taliban going door to door in search of its enemies instead, its narco-traffickers and gang leaders, OMara Vignarajah said. We see repression that puts a target on anyone who dares to speak out against these corrupt governments.

Just as America bears responsibility for the crisis that Afghans are fleeing, it has also played a well-documented but often-overlooked role in creating the conditions that are driving people to make the journey to the US southern border.

The US economically knee-capped Haiti from its inception as a nation, with American banks managing and financing Haitis independence debt of 150 million francs to France, meant to compensate enslavers loss of income in exchange for Frances recognition of the former colonys independence. The US also occupied Haiti for 19 years, beginning in 1915, in order to preserve American commercial and political influence in the country, transferring its national financial reserves to the US and rewriting its constitution to allow foreigners to own land.

The US has continued to force its interests in the country in recent years. Then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervened in Haitis 2010 presidential election, handpicking former President Michel Martelly, who has been criticized for mismanaging millions in international disaster relief funds in the wake of that years devastating earthquake.

The US has a similar history of intervention in Central America. Dating back to Theodore Roosevelts assertion of the USs right to exercise international police power in Latin America, the US has stifled democratic movements, backed military coups, and enabled extractive economic policies in the region that have led to todays poverty, instability, and violence.

That approach extends to more recent history, as well. For example, the Reagan administration provided military assistance to El Salvadors authoritarian government amid a civil war that left more than 80,000 dead, most at the hands of Salvadoran military and death squads. It also supported two back-to-back military coups in Guatemala that resulted in the deaths of more than 150,000 civilians and a genocide against Indigenous people.

Later, the Bush administration pressured El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala over the objections of local unionists, farmers, and informal economy workers to enter a free trade agreement with the US that gave multinational corporations more power over domestic trade and regulations, leading to exploitative labor and wage practices.

And the Obama administration tacitly supported a military coup that ousted Hondurass democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya, paving the way for repressive dictator Juan Orlando Hernndez who has been named as a co-conspirator in his brothers drug crimes by US prosecutors and remains under investigation by the Department of Justice to take power.

Nevertheless, US border policy has continued to focus on turning away people fleeing those countries, and attempts to find solutions have been piecemeal.

President Joe Biden recently restarted the Central American Minors program, which allows children from countries in the Northern Triangle to reunite with their parents living in the US. He has also allowed more than 100,000 Haitians who arrived in the US before July 29, 2021, to apply for Temporary Protected Status, which is typically offered to citizens of countries suffering from natural disasters or armed conflict. Those people are able to live and work in the US free of fear of deportation.

But he has simultaneously sought to maintain pandemic-related border restrictions established by Trump under which more than a million migrants have been expelled. Biden is also restarting Trumps Remain in Mexico policy, which forced tens of thousands of migrants to wait in Mexico for their court hearings in the US. And he has resumed repatriation flights to Haiti despite conditions on the ground remaining precarious, sending people back without determining whether they are eligible for humanitarian protections in the US.

For refugee advocates, the discrepancy between the USs response to Afghan refugees and others seeking protection is difficult to parse.

Its hard to reconcile how one pro-democracy activist may be admitted and another is turned away, OMara Vignarajah said.

Many refugee advocates see the discrepancy in some Americans attitudes toward Afghan refugees and asylum seekers arriving at the southern border as the result of an education gap.

OMara Vignarajah said that she still gets questions about why a family would risk making the treacherous, 1,000-mile journey north from the Northern Triangle with a toddler. She has to explain that they feel its a better alternative to the certain death they would face if they stayed.

She said that she has even had conversations with members of Congress who, while being staunch advocates for Afghan refugees, describe asylum seekers at the southern border as illegals, even though those people are legally entitled to claim asylum.

Those kinds of comments are rooted in a misunderstanding of the kind of circumstances that asylum seekers are fleeing and that, in effect, they are looking for the same protection as refugees. Denise Bell, a researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International, said that she boils down the distinction to where they ask for protection: For an asylum seeker, its on US soil; for a refugee, its abroad.

Bell said that its not so much that Americans are inherently opposed to offering protection to people arriving on the southern border. They just dont see them as a vulnerable population equivalent to refugees. The more Americans have experiences with refugees and asylum seekers, the more immigrant advocates can begin to close that education gap, Bell said.

On one hand, Biden has taken some steps to facilitate that contact. For instance, hes already pledged to raise the annual cap on refugee admissions from 62,500 to 125,000 starting in October (still short of the 200,000 that advocates and progressives in Congress have called for). He is also seeking to create a private refugee sponsorship program, which would allow private organizations and groups to financially support even more refugees for resettlement in the US.

But on the other hand, the Biden administration continues to deny migrants arriving on the border the opportunity to seek humanitarian protections to which they may be entitled.

The president has clung to pandemic-related border restrictions, known as the Title 42 policy, implemented by the Trump administration last year. Since March 2020, that policy has been used to rapidly expel more than a million migrants without hearings before an immigration judge. A federal judge partially blocked the policy, effective September 30, and the Biden administration has appealed that decision.

The administration is also preparing to detain migrants at facilities in Guantanamo Bay should there be a surge of migration at the southern border. (Though administration officials told NBC they had no intention of sending Haitians arriving at the border to the facilities, the administration is seeking to hire guards who speak Creole.)

Overall, Biden could do more to change Americans perceptions beginning by creating clarity around what constitutes a problem that merits asylum or refugee status and consistent standards for who can seek those statuses.

As things stand, it might be hard for Americans to recognize that migrants on the border are also worthy of protection for as long as Trump-era policies remain in place and Biden continues to implore them not to come.

But refugee advocates see the current crisis with Afghan refugees as an opportunity to inform a broader, more attentive audience.

This is the moment where, in the short-term, we help all the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who will be arriving, she said. But this is also the moment to create a movement of welcome. This is about everybody. Right now we start here, but its about everybody.

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Afghan refugees and Haitians at the Texas border: Whos worthy of US protection? - Vox.com

When Angela Merkel steps down as chancellor once Germanys elections later this month produce a new government, the tributes will centre on her role as the figurehead of western liberalism; an island of stability, caution and openness in an era marked by turbulence and far-right reaction. She will be remembered for serious work, stable leadership and having a gift for political compromise, wrote Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post last week. When she faced off against Donald Trump after his inauguration in 2017, some newspapers dubbed her the new leader of the free world.

Fundamental to this image is the intervention she made in late summer 2015, at the height of Europes refugee crisis. Wir schaffen das well manage this was Merkels public statement as thousands of people, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were making their way through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans to western Europe. By declaring Germany and, by extension, Europe open to refugees, she was making a bold, pragmatic statement of intent.

Yet two contradictory myths have grown up around the wir schaffen das moment, both of which overstate the significance of her intervention and mischaracterise its effects. The populist right blames Merkel for prompting one of the largest mass migrations in the continents recent history, a catastrophic mistake, as Trump later put it, that would undermine Europes security and identity through an overwhelming foreign intrusion.

Liberals, meanwhile, treat it as a triumph. Merkels stance, in this telling, held true to the values that supposedly underpin the European project the EU, after all, is the only geopolitical bloc to have been awarded the Nobel peace prize and showed that a crisis could be met with compassion.

In truth, Merkels contribution to Europes politics of immigration went much further than wir schaffen das, and her legacy is far more mixed. As an investigation by Die Zeit has since shown, wir schaffen das did not, for the most part, encourage migration: it acknowledged a reality that already existed.

The refugee crisis had already been under way for several months by the summer of 2015, with people motivated to travel more by what was pushing them from their homes than the reception they expected in Europe. Syrians in 2015, for instance, were facing a worsening conflict, decreasing food rations from aid agencies, and employment bans in Lebanon and Turkey, where most Syrian refugees have settled. When Germany announced in early September 2015, a few days after Merkels speech, that it would keep its borders open to refugees who were heading westwards from the Keleti railway station in Budapest, people had been travelling for months already.

Whats more, Europes crisis the chaotic and deadly arrival of people not just through Greece but across the central Mediterranean from Africa was in large part a product of the continents own border policies, which had closed off safe routes to asylum and funnelled people into dangerous bottlenecks. Germany under Merkel, as the EUs most powerful member, played a key role in creating the problem. It helped maintain a system in which border security was given higher priority than refugee reception between 2007 and 2013, according to Amnesty International, the EU spent 2bn on the former, and only 700m on the latter. Likewise, Merkels insistence on punitive austerity as the solution to Europes earlier economic crisis fatally weakened the capacity of frontline states such as Greece to respond to greater numbers of refugees at a crucial moment.

Even the moment of openness that wir schaffen das expressed was short-lived, with Germany soon working to rebuild and strengthen Fortress Europe. By mid-September 2015, Germany had introduced temporary controls on its border with Austria, the beginning of a process that would eventually see migration routes through south-eastern Europe closed off. A few months later, Merkel was a leading proponent of the 2016 deal that effectively trapped many refugees in Turkey, while Germany has done nothing to challenge the EUs authoritarian turn that has made search and rescue in the Mediterranean almost impossible. Merkel may have been a bulwark against far-right domination of European politics, but the price was to absorb some of the far-rights agenda on border control.

Yet while Merkel did not radically alter the European course of the crisis, she shifted the tone of debate at a crucial moment. Fleeting as it was, this mattered. Its effects can be seen in the way German society accommodated the 1.7 million people who claimed asylum there between 2015 and 2019. Despite the dire predictions from the right, this has been an undoubted success: a survey published last year suggested that refugees who arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2016 were finding jobs more rapidly than in previous years. As the Guardian reported last year, another survey suggested that more than 80% of refugee children felt that they belonged in Germany and were welcome. The xenophobic backlash, playing on fears of crime or terrorism, is real, but it is something that can be and is being challenged.

Britains government makes an instructive comparison: even as it proclaims its generosity towards a small fraction of the people currently trying to flee Afghanistan (the official scheme promises to resettle 20,000 people over five years), this is drowned out by its authoritarian posturing. The latest of these, a promise to turn around migrant boats in the Channel, one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes, risks deadly consequences if it ever comes to pass. The response to recent Afghan arrivals sustained by a huge volunteer effort itself reveals the shoddiness of Britains asylum system: why is it being left to volunteers and charities to provide essentials such as clothes?

Ultimately, Merkels legacy tells us less about one politicians actions than about what can be done if a society has the will to help people in need. That is a collective effort. But the myths and symbols politicians trade in have the capacity to enable such efforts, or to destroy them. In Britain, it often feels like the debate on asylum is dominated by a competition to see who can sound the toughest: between politicians who enthusiastically push a hard-right agenda, and those who purport to be liberals but take a tough stance because they think its what the public wants.

This goes beyond the peculiar cruelties of our current government: it is the product of years of xenophobia encouraged by the rightwing press, and will take a huge effort to unpick. But Merkel should remind us, however inconsistent her actions might have been in reality, that there is always an alternative.

Daniel Trilling is the author of Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe and Bloody Nasty People: the Rise of Britains Far Right

This article was amended on 22 September 2021, as it suggested that more than half of refugees in Germany were in work, but this was drawn from a study that suggested that 49% of those who had been in the country for more than five years were employed.

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How the refugee crisis created two myths of Angela Merkel - The Guardian

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) Tonights show begins with a look at the migrant crisis along the southern border.

Former Chief U.S. Border Patrol and retired Acting ICE directorRonald Vitello analyzes the situation.

Sheila Cherfilus McCormick, daughter of Haitian immigrants and current Florida Democratic Congressional candidate, talks about what the U.S. should do to address the crisis.

NewsNations Brian Entin gives the latest updates on the Gabby Petito case. Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan explains what tactics the search crews use.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and The Hills Julia Manchester explain the debt ceiling and what Congress can do about it.

Melissa Fallon does not want her daughter vaccinated, but a judge recently sided with the girls father, who does want her to get the shot. Fallon joins the program to explain her side. Attorney Wendy Patrick explains the law at work in this case.

Watch The Donlon Report weeknights at 7/6c.

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Migrant crisis, debt ceiling showdown and a judges ruling on vaccinating a child - NewsNation Now

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argues "the message is very clear" from the Biden administration on immigration as border crisis continues.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took aim at the Biden administration during an appearance on "Mornings with Maria" Tuesday over the migrant crisis unraveling at the southern border, arguing the president "invited" migrants in under "violation of federal law."

KEN PAXTON: This illegal immigration problem, it wasn't an accident. Joe Biden invited them in, in violation of federal law. He's been doing that from the beginning. He gave Haitians special protection so that they wouldn't be deported and sent the message, just like he's been doing from day one of his administration.

FEDS RELEASING 'NUMEROUS' MIGRANTS FAR FROM SOUTHERN BORDER IN 'CATCH AND RELEASE' SYSTEM 'ON A GRANDER SCALE'

The message is very clear: 'We have federal laws; we're not going to follow them. I'm not going to follow them. Come to Texas, come to Arizona, come to our country. We'll let you in. We're not worried about any of the problems associated with it.' That is the reality we have to accept.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the overwhelmed border as Texas sees surge in migrants, Biden's immigration policies and the country's national security.

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Texas AG rips admins handling of migrant crisis: Joe Biden 'invited them in,' in violation of federal law - Fox Business

Ted Cruz has slammed Joe Bidens chaotic management of the migrant border crisis, saying thousands of desperate Haitians rushed to Texas after the president canceled deportation flights.

Up to 15,000 migrants have been living in squalid conditions in an impromptu camp that sprang up under a bridge spanning the Rio Grande from the Texas town Del Rio to Mexicos Ciudad Acuna.

The Department of Homeland Security say they have removed 4,600 people in recent days from the site but have not revealed how many have been released into the US.

The White House has also refused to answer when, if ever, Biden has visited the border, even in his previous roles as vice president and senator.

Following the recent crackdown in response to the huge influx, hundreds of migrants have instead headed to Mexicos refugee agencies and shelters amid the chaotic scenes.

Speaking to Fox News Laura Ingraham, Cruz, a Republican Texas senator, said: Whats happening in Del Rio really illustrates the cause-and-effect of the Biden border disaster. To really understand it, you have to go back to September 8.

Up to 15,000 migrants have been living in squalid conditions in an impromptu camp that sprang up under a bridge spanning the Rio Grande

Migrants seeking refuge in the US wade through the Rio Grande river from Ciudad Acuna in Mexico

This overhead photo shows some of the hundreds of Texas state SUVs used to form a de-facto steel barrier along the United States-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas

Ted Cruz has slammed Joe Bidens management of the migrant border crisis, saying thousands of Haitians rushed to Texas after the president canceled deportation flights

On September 8, under that bridge, there were, on any given day, between 700 and 1,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Haiti.

On September 8 there were roughly 900 Haitians that were scheduled to be on airplanes to go back to Haiti and the Biden administration canceled those flights.

They said, Were not gonna deport you. You can stay here. You can remain in America.

And what happened was simple. Those 900 Haitians, they pulled out their phones. And they got their phone and they called their families, they called their friends. They texted their family and friends.

Migrants have been usingFacebook, YouTube and WhatsApp to share detailed instructions with friends and family back home on how to cross the border into the US, it was recently revealed.

Migrants, many of them from Haiti, are pictured wading back and forth between Texas and Mexico on Wednesday. At the weekend an estimated 14,000 migrants were sheltering in Del Rio

The White House has refused to answer when, if ever, Biden has visited the border, even in his previous roles as vice president and senator

A photo from September 22 shows migrants being routed out of a makeshift border camp after being processed by US officials. The White House has pledged to deport most of the migrants back to Haiti under Title 42, but reports indicate thats not the case for some being released

There has been a stream of migrants flooding into the US since the start of Joe Bidens presidency.

But recent weeks have seen a huge uptick of people trying to enter Texas via the Rio Grande, mostly from Haiti.

The island nation has been dogged by crime, poverty and natural disasters, with a recent earthquake displacing thousands, fuelling a further rush to the US.

The Biden administration put a hold on deportation flights in response to the earthquake, allowing thousands to gather in camps in Del Rio.

The suspension has since been reversed, with flights recommencing Sunday.

Under Title 42, migrants can be repatriated to their home nations without the possibility of requesting asylum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cruz continued: You had 700 people on September 8. I was down in Del Rio eight days later on September 16. The day I was there, 700 people had become 10,503. It took eight days for that to happen.

Within a couple of days that 10,000 had become 15,000 and it was straight cause-and-effect. The word went out that the Biden administration is not going to enforce the law.

And if youre from Haiti, come to Del Rio because that means you get to stay, and thats whats produced this disaster.

Biden initially suspended repatriation flights to Haiti after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes.

But he has since stepped up the deportation blitzin order to curb the number of undocumented migrants flooding into Del Rio as thousands continued to arrive.

The official line is that Haitians are being expelled from the US back to the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation under a Donald Trump-era rule.

Under Title 42, migrants can be repatriated to their home nations without the possibility of requesting asylum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 523 Haitians have since been deported to their homeland on four flights, with repatriations set to continue on a regular basis, the Department of Homeland Security said.

But thousands of migrants have also been freed into the US on a very, very large scale rather than being flown out as the Biden administration promised, according to officials. Its estimated as many as 5,000 migrants have been allowed in.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been forced to use unprecedented methods to prevent more from entering his state by creating a steel barrier of hundreds of vehicles at the border.

Migrants exit a Border Patrol bus and prepare to be received by the Val Verde Humanitarian Coalition after crossing the Rio Grande on Wednesday

A young child clings to their father as he wades across the river into the United States

They are lined up outside Del Rio in Texas, which has seen an influx of 14,600 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US. An estimated 8,600 remained in the town of 35,000 people as of Tuesday night, with 1,083 so far deported back to Haiti

Abbott visited the site on Tuesday and praised DPS and Texas National Guard for creating the barrier by using hundreds of state-owned vehicles, almost all of which appear to be bulky SUVs.

Unlike Abbott, Biden is yet to witness the scenes of chaos firsthand, where migrants are living in squalid conditions and forced to sleep on the ground under makeshift tents from discarded clothing and tree branches in searing heat.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was pressed on whether Biden had visited the southern border at all in his life but she said she could not provide a date.

The president has frequently visited areas affected by natural disasters but is yet to make a trip to the current crisis emerging in Texas.

The makeshift border camp at one point swelled to more than 14,000 migrants, with this photo emphasizing just how large the encampment has become

Del Rio in Texas, which has seen an influx of 14,600 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US. An estimated 8,600 remained in the town of 35,000 people as of Tuesday night, with 1,083 so far deported back to Haiti. Thousands more have been released into the US

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said: Has Joe Biden ever been to the border? Its a question that needs to be answered by the president, who is presiding over the most disastrous border crisis in decades.

The RNC Research team investigated and has been unable to find a single example of Biden visiting the border in at least a decade, even when he was Obamas border czar. Biden created a humanitarian crisis at the border and refuses to take responsibility for it.

The buck stops with him, and it is long past time for Biden to make the trip, see the devastating impacts of his open border policies for himself, and address the crises his failed policies created.

Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency, has warned that US expulsions to such a volatile situation might violate international law.

The chaotic scenes at the border and news of the expulsion flights convinced some Haitian migrants transiting through Mexico that it would be better to petition for legal status there, rather than risk crossing the U.S. border.

My thinking is to find a better life, wherever I find it I never said it had to be in the United States, said Wilner Plaisir, a Haitian asylum seeker waiting outside the offices of the Mexican refugee agency COMAR in Mexico City on Wednesday.

John Rourke on Wednesday night told of the distressing scenes he saw in Del Rio, Texas

May 22 2021: Department of Homeland Security announces Haitians in US will be granted Temporary Protection Status (TPS), meaning they cant be deported and can apply for documentation that allows them to work

July 7: Haitian President Jovenel Moise is assassinated at his presidential palace in Port-au-Prince

August 14: Haiti is hit by magnitude 7.2 earthquake, killing at least 2,000

September 17: An estimated 12,000 migrants suddenly arrive in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico. Many had been granted refugee status in Brazil and Chile after an earlier quake in 2010

September 18: Biden administration announces it will swiftly deport Haitians who cross into the US from Mexico

September 19: The number of migrants in Del Rio swells to an estimated 14,600. Deportation flights to Haiti begin, with 327 people flown out of the US

September 20: Border Patrol officials continue bussing Haitians away from Del Rio, with a further 233 deported. Photos of migrants being confronted by agents on horseback cracking their reigns emerge

September 21: Another 523 people are deported via plane, with the number of Haitians remaining in Del Rio estimated at 8,600. Texas Governor Greg Abbott arranges for hundreds of state vehicles to form a makeshift border wall in Del Rio

September 22: Unnamed sources tell AP thousands of Haitians apprehended in Del Rio have been released into the US rather than deported. Seven flights have been scheduled to continue the deportation effort.

If I can find work, Ill stay here with my family, said the construction worker.

Statistics published by COMAR show that 18,883 Haitians applied for asylum in Mexico in the first eight months of this year, the second-highest nationality after Hondurans.

Border Patrol agents were so concerned about the escalating situation at the border that they requested additional resources three months ago but their concerns were not acted on by superiors.

Jon Anfinsen, National Border Patrol Council local president told CNN that the union on June 1 suggested improvements to the system.

Anfinsen said that they wantedagents to be sent to the border with tablets to start the intake process when a large group crosses the river, instead of having the group wait there while space is cleared in the station.

This way, we can at least get part of the process finished before they even get to the station instead of wasting that time, said the email.

The union followed up on June 3, and also suggested placing a trailer in the area for additional staff, to deal with a predicted surge.

On June 17, the union received a one-sentence response: This is being explored, several other platforms are being considered which are more efficient.

Meanwhile anArmy veteran who organizes annual clean-ups of American cities has told of his shock at the squalid conditions along the border.

John Rourke, founder of the Great American Clean-Up, said that he and his team were taken aback at the scenes.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary, was in the city on Monday but Rourke told Fox News Tucker Carlson that more needed to be done.

Let me tell you what I saw, Rourke said.

I saw people washing babies in the Rio Grande.

I saw ladies breastfeeding babies, sleeping in dirt, 107 degrees outside, red ants everywhere, real coyotes the ones that have four legs walking around.

Its like Naked And Afraid: the southern border edition, out there.

People are literally knocking down trees and setting up lean-tos and teepees and sleeping under those.

He said he and his colleagues picked up thousands of pounds of garbage along the southern border.

Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti Source link Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti

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Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti - Texasnewstoday.com