The Denver Gazette

Migrant camp shrinks; U.S. special envoy to Haiti resigns

BY DIANNE SOLIS The Dallas Morning News

DEL RIO, TEXAS • A giant camp in this small border city is now almost a fourth the size it was, with roughly 4,000 mostly Haitian migrants living and sleeping under the international bridge, government officials said Thursday.

But the controversy over newly arrived asylum seekers continues to grow.

Thursday morning, the Biden administration’s special envoy to Haiti resigned, protesting “inhumane, counterproductive” expulsions of Haitian migrants back to that island-nation which has been rocked by civil strife and natural disasters. Daniel Foote, the envoy, had only been in his post since July after the assassination of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s president. He cited armed gangs as part of daily life there.

“Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own,” he said.

The Biden administration also has told U.S. border officials to suspend patrols by agents on horseback in the Del Rio sector, after images emerged last weekend showing a Border Patrol agent chasing migrants in an apparent attempt to push them back into the Rio Grande.

The change, announced by Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, comes days after The White House expressed horror at the images. An internal investigation is under way.

Guerline Jozef, the president of the advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance, said Thursday that her group supported Foote’s decision against the expulsion of thousands of Haitians back to Haiti. “Black asylum seekers need compassion, not an endless cycle of inhumane and careless treatment,” she said in a statement. Jozef has been in Del Rio meeting with Haitians for the past week.

A growing number of immigration advocacy groups, including the Haitian Bridge Alliance, have called for the end of expulsions of Haitians under a COVID-19-related public health order known as Title 42 that was issued by the Trump administration and kept in place by the Biden administration. Those groups charge that Title 42’s quick expulsions violate the due process rights of migrants, especially those seeking asylum in the U.S.

A steady caravan of state troopers in black vehicles could be seen making their daily trek into Del Rio from Uvalde on rural Highway 90 where a sea of mesquite trees stretches across the horizon. Many are staying an hour away from Del Rio, where hotels are saturated with law enforcement and media. Those troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard are part of the huge presence ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection, to block further mass border crossings.

ON THE BORDER

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https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281749862501425

The Gazette, Colorado Springs