Thousands of Haitian migrants who created a camp in the Texas border town of Del Rio for a short time have found helpful over the river in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
While US officials reported that the camp on the US side had been removed, an unknown number of migrants remained in Ciudad Acuña, fearful of walking into the streets after Mexican immigration agents stormed a small hotel and surrounded a similar camp on the Mexican side.
Some locals of Ciudad Acuña took in Haitian families, while others helped with food and water. Virginia Salazar, a Mexican lady, and her Togo-born husband, Mensah Montant, were among those who reacted to the Haitians' plight.
Haitian migrants fear deportation
The pair sent rice to one family, medicine to another, and are currently on the lookout for a mattress for a Haitian family, as per The Washington Post. Montant understands what it's like to be an outsider in a new land: He came to Mexico nine years ago as an immigrant and now works as a tailor.
They've personally helped around a dozen Haitians, but it's unclear how many are still hiding after US authorities cleared the camp on the other side. On September 17, US officials barred the passage after an encampment of mostly Haitian migrants assembled along the border bridge span.
All migrants were evacuated from the camp on Friday. Because they are not covered by the protections recently provided by the Biden administration to the over 100,000 Haitian migrants living in the United States, many of those migrants fear deportation.
Over the previous week, about 2,000 Haitians were quickly deported on 17 planes, with additional deportations possible in the following days.
Migrants from Haiti who were turned away at the US border are adjusting to life in Mexico, where crime, a lack of employment, and difficulty getting paperwork are sapping their spirits, AFP via Yahoo reported.
Mexico experiences growing inflows of migrants
On Friday, the US reported that the last of the migrants camped illegally beneath a bridge on the Texas side of the border had either gone or been removed, with many being returned to Haiti.
Hours later, Haitian migrants on the Mexican side of the border abandoned another temporary campsite in Ciudad Acuna. Their departure, however, was far from the conclusion of a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of Haitians arrive in Mexico in the hopes of reaching the United States since August.
Other towns in northeast Mexico, such as Monterrey, are experiencing growing inflows of migrants escaping poverty and violence in their home countries or decreasing prospects in South American countries where they emigrated years ago.
Despite rising dissatisfaction with the treatment of the trapped migrants, Mexican officials are pressuring Haitians attempting to cross the Texas border to give up and return to Mexico's Guatemalan border to seek asylum.
Up to 14,000 people, mostly Haitians, camped just north of the Rio Grande River earlier this month in an attempt to enter the United States, but hundreds fled to Mexico as US officials began flying them back to Haiti.
The US special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest over the Biden administration's deportations of migrants to the Caribbean country, which has been wracked by political assassination, gang violence, and natural catastrophes. This came after photos of a US border agent on horseback unfurling a whip-like cord at migrants near their tent sparked global outrage, as per CBS Local.
