Migrants, Ciudad Acuna, Mexico (AP Photo / Felix Marquez)

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September 25, 2021 All Haitian migrants who had massed at the Mexican-US border in hopes of entering US territory have fled their makeshift camps. This was reported by the American government and France Presse journalists on the spot. The last remaining asylum seekers who had camped near Ciudad Acuna were taken to the shelters in vans.



Shortly before, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, had announced, during a press conference at the White House, that "today we no longer have migrants in the camp under the bridge" in the city of Del Rio, Texas, which counted up to 15,000 people, including many Haitians, at the end of last week.



About 2,000 people have been deported by plane to Haiti, 8,000 have voluntarily returned to Mexico, 5,000 have been transferred to reception centers and 12,400 have been able to leave the area and will have to appear before an immigration judge to defend their request for asylum, said the minister.       



In total, according to Mayorkas, 30,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, have arrived since 9 September in the small Texas border town, where they lived in the heat and unsanitary after crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna.



This massive influx of migrants and the treatment suffered by some, rejected by border police officers on horseback as they crossed the river, have sparked an avalanche of criticism of the Biden administration, deemed inhumane by the left and lax by the right.



In a snapshot taken Sunday by an AFP photographer, a border guard on horseback grabs a man by his shirt on the American coast. In another, an agent holds a group at bay by turning the reins, in a threatening position, to force them to turn back. These images, which have traveled around the world, have caused a stir in the United States. 



Joe Biden, who had not yet spoken publicly on the matter, promised Friday that these agents would "pay" for these "scandalous" acts.

US authorities have already opened an investigation and temporarily suspended border police operations on horseback around Del Rio.     



These expulsions, authorized as part of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, "are dictated by public health imperatives", assured Alejandro Mayorkas.

The government did not behave in an "immoral" way, he added, stressing that the right of asylum was governed by strict rules.