US border patrol agents cut off asylum-seeking migrants trying to return to the United States via the Rio Grande River.DANIEL BECERRIL / Reuters
Up to 15,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, crowded together over the weekend in a makeshift camp under the international bridge that connects Ciudad Acuña (Mexico) and Del Río (USA), a remote Texas city of 36,000 inhabitants overwhelmed by the situation. .
They ended up there lured by misinformation about the reception system and guided by the traffickers.
After days of tension, Border Patrol agents on horseback violently suppressed new attempts to cross the river before the cameras.
The images suggest that they used whips and bridles against the migrants in a kind of tragic rodeo to prevent families who fled from the poorest country in America from stepping on American soil.
Some carried children in their arms.
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The White House has called the scenes "horrible". It is not for less. This is improper behavior that severely stains the promises of change of the current White House regarding the management of irregular immigration, in the face of the unprecedented cruelty practiced by its predecessors. The United States continues to give the image of a hostile country. Washington's outrage is not enough. The Border Patrol is a federal body. There are no Republicans here to blame. The announced investigation of the events should lead to a reform of a police force that operates with an unacceptable margin of discretion and lack of supervision.
Expressions of condemnation have not translated into compassion for Haitians. The United States has begun deportation flights from Texas to Haiti, a country that only offers misery and violence. As of Tuesday, 523 migrants had been deported by plane and authorities have confirmed that more flights will follow. These hot returns before the migrants request asylum are made by means of a legal excuse established by Donald Trump that, as a result of the pandemic, allows them to be rejected at the border due to sanitary risk. Biden still uses it. But deporting families to a country like Haiti "defies common sense and decency," Democrat Chuck Schumer rightly criticized. The legitimate objective of deterring irregular immigration cannot be pursued by punishing those who make it to the end of the journey.
It will not be the last human crisis on a border that does not understand presidents.
It is not even the first starring Haitians.
The management of immigration must go beyond solving uncomfortable television images and advance on the lines proposed by Mexico, whose border cities to the North and South are turning into open-air prisons: an ambitious international migration pact based on greater investment in the countries of origin and in a system of work visas that expedites economic migration.
Biden has that mandate from the voters and, starting this week, a good incentive to act decisively.