Here’s What Haitians Are Finding When They Get Off U.S. Expulsion Flights

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Haitians deported from the U.S. recover their belongings scattered on the tarmac of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport on Tuesday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Joseph Odelyn/AP

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Joseph Odelyn/AP

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People deported by the U.S. to Haiti arrive Sunday at the Port-au-Prince airport. Expulsion flights from the U.S. reportedly are expected to ramp up to seven daily flights this week.

Richard Pierrin/AFP via Getty Images

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Richard Pierrin/AFP via Getty Images

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The Biden Administration Is Fighting In Court To Keep A Trump-Era Immigration Policy

Few seem aware, Charles said, that the Biden administration is enforcing a Trump-era public health order of expelling migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum. The first expulsion flights from the U.S. took place on Sunday; they’re expected to ramp up to seven daily flights this week, according to the AP and other news outlets.

Thousands of migrants are camped at the border in Texas

A migrant encampment under the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, recently grew to more than 14,000 people, prompting the Biden administration to order a surge in border personnel and the start of expulsion flights.

The number of people at the camp has fallen to around 8,600, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Tuesday. Many of the migrants are originally from Haiti, but others are from Cuba, Brazil and elsewhere.

Some of the migrants have been lucky enough to enter the U.S., where they’re now being moved to processing centers in other cities, as Texas Public Radio reported.

The rationale for deciding which migrants stay and who gets expelled hasn’t been publicly clarified. The AP said adults without families are prioritized for deportation — although families are also being sent back. While many Haitians are being deported, «thousands are being released into the U.S., the news agency reported.

Aid and rights groups assail U.S. policy

The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have criticized the U.S. response to the migrant surge, particularly after agents on horseback were seen chasing and grabbing people who were carrying food back to their families.

Partners In Health, a nonprofit health care group that works in Haiti, issued a statement saying it is «outraged by the «inhumane treatment of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers.

Even before photos of agents on horseback drew outrage, Doctors Without Borders called on the U.S. to halt expulsion flights to Haiti on humanitarian grounds.

«The insecurity that we see today in Port-au-Prince is the worst we have seen in decades, the aid group said.