Nearly 15,000 migrants entered the United States last week by crossing the Rio Grande at the Texas city of Del Rio.

This poor Caribbean country was recently hit by a new natural disaster - an earthquake that killed 2,200 people in August - and by political instability following the assassination of its president Jovenel Moïse in July.

France 24 reviews the issues raised by this humanitarian crisis on the southern border of the United States.

What is the situation there?

Thousands of migrants are still camping under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio, about 600 km east of El Paso.

They "are mainly from Haiti (...) they are just waiting to be stopped by the border guards" to begin the procedures for authorization to stay, explained the mayor of the town, Bruno Lozano, in a video posted on Twitter.

Today's photos taken at 3pm.

Ever changing dynamics.

Thank you @USBPChief for your efforts in providing additional logistical support to the Del Rio Sector.

Thank you @GovAbbott for sending additional state resources.

@ POTUS44 where are you?

pic.twitter.com/ooAcqDRJdq

- Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano (@BrunoRalphy) September 18, 2021

According to the democratic councilor, the number of migrants stranded under the bridge rose from less than 2,000 at the start of the week to more than 14,800 on Saturday, September 18.

This sudden influx led to a humanitarian crisis, accentuated by unsanitary conditions and hot weather.

"Extreme circumstances call for extreme responses," the mayor of Del Rio told the Texas Tribune newspaper.

"There are women who give birth, people who pass out from the temperature, they are a little aggressive and that's normal after all these days in the heat."

The bridge was closed to traffic on Friday and reinforcements of border guards were sent to the scene.

What are the American authorities doing?

US border guards have said they have distributed drinking water, towels and portable toilets to migrants.

But the images taken by photojournalists on the spot mainly show border guards on horseback trying to prevent migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, which marks the border between the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuña and the Texan town of Del Rio.

US border police officers on horseback try to prevent migrants from entering US territory near the Texas town of Del Rio, September 19, 2021 © Paul Ratje / AFP

The American border police, the CBP, thus sent 400 additional agents, while several buses were chartered to relieve congestion Del Rio.

The migrants have been sent to other border guard centers, where their cases will be examined, as well as planes scheduled for deportations.

In fact, the Biden administration wants to be firm, stressing that illegal immigration was a "significant threat to the health and well-being of residents near the border and to the lives of the migrants themselves."

"The vast majority of migrants continue to be deported under" a health rule adopted at the start of the pandemic to limit the spread of the virus, said the Ministry of Homeland Security.

The decision of a federal judge ordering the authorities to no longer deport migrant families under this rule seems to have gone unheeded - the government having appealed on Friday.

Migrants at the border between Mexico and the United States, September 19, 2021. © Paul Ratje / AFP

How do the evictions go?

Quickly. Three flights from Texas landed on Sunday, September 19, on the tarmac in Port-au-Prince within two hours. According to the New York Times, Haitian authorities expect six flights a day for three weeks, which will be divided between the capital Port-au-Prince and the city of Cap Haitien. The deportees, who included several families, received a meal, $ 100, and were tested for Covid-19, according to the Haitian National Migration Office

.

The US Department of Homeland Security also reported other deportations to come to Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Many Haitians currently stranded in Del Rio are, in fact, from various South American countries.

According to the manifestos of the three flights that landed in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, nearly half of the 327 Haitians expelled by the United States were under 5 years old and all of these children were born outside Haiti.

AFP reports that these Haitians had lived for several years in Chile and Brazil, where they had emigrated during 2016 and 2017, before attempting to reach the United States through a supposed opening of borders.

Haitian migrants deported from the United States disembark at Port-au-Prince airport, September 19, 2021 © Richard Pierrin / AFP

What is the impact for President Biden?

The deterioration of the situation in Del Rio was seized as an opportunity by the Republican opposition, which for several months accused President Biden of fueling a "migration crisis" by relaxing the measures of his predecessor Donald Trump.

After going there, Republican Senator Ted Cruz denounced "a disaster caused by Joe Biden".

According to him, Haitian migrants flocked "because President Joe Biden made the political decision to cancel deportation flights to Haiti" after the assassination in July of President Jovenel Moïse, which accentuated the chaos on the country. West Indies island.

The firmness of the Biden administration and the increase in deportation flights now risk opening a rift with the left wing of the Democratic Party, which underscores the humanitarian nature of the current crisis.

"These Haitian migrants have already suffered a lot during the dangerous journey to our border," tweeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

"The lack of eagerness to come to their aid is alarming." 

A Haitian father and his son, pictured on September 19, 2021 in Ciudad Acuña, the Mexican city across the Rio Grande from Del Rio.

© John Moore / Getty Images via AFP

With AFP, Reuters and AP

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