Here and there, garbage collectors clear away plastic sheeting and reporters speak to their announcers. But otherwise there is nothing else on current TV images from the International Bridge in Del Rio to indicate the many people who had camped there a few days ago. More than 10,000 migrants had temporarily stayed in the Texan town on the Mexican border in the open air to apply for asylum in the United States. Because the bare minimums were missing in the makeshift camp and because Texas border officials drove newcomers to the Rio Grande on horseback and beat them with reins, the government of Joe Biden promised swift action.After weeks of criticism of his Afghanistan policy and in the midst of difficult budget negotiations, the president had to defend himself against the accusation of treating immigrants inhumanly in view of the pictures from Texas.

Most of the people stranded in Del Rio were from Haiti. Two thousand of them have been deported there in the past few days. According to the authorities, around 8,000 people from the disbanded camp decided to go to Mexico instead. From there they could travel back to the United States to apply for asylum. At the moment, however, this possibility is not available to them. In recent months, Biden relied on an order from the previous government of Donald Trump. Since the beginning of the pandemic, this has regulated that migrants without a visa can be deported quickly if they pose a risk to general health. Human rights organizations have long criticized this as a disproportionate disadvantage, and a federal judge recently ruled thatthat the authorities are no longer allowed to apply the regulation indefinitely - but the government has already filed an objection.

View of the 2022 congressional elections

The debacle on the southern border quickly turned into a political conflict within the Democratic Party.

Groups like the civil rights organization NAACP accused the government of treating black immigrants more harshly than others.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus group called on the White House to stop deportation flights to Haiti.

They also called for violent border guards to be punished.

Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, called on Biden not to continue the "hateful and xenophobic policies of the Trump administration".

From the perspective of the left, Biden is breaking election promises with his immigration policy.

Former housing minister and presidential candidate Julián Castro said Biden is risking the "collapse" of the social coalition that brought him to power.

The focus is already on the congressional elections in the coming year.