Border camp near Texas is empty following the forced removal of migrants

All migrants were removed Friday from the border camp near Del Rio, Texas, which just last week housed nearly 14,000 migrants.

It’s a drastic departure from just a week ago, when migrants rushed past border officials, attempting to cross illegally into Texas. 

Many of the immigrants were from Haiti, and after the encampment received widespread attention from the media, the Biden administration ramped up deportations.

According to the Associated Press, nearly 2,000 Haitians were expelled from the camp over the last week, with another 4,000 waiting for deportation flights. Some of the migrants were either sent back to Haiti, or to another country they previously held legal residency in, such as Chile or Brazil.

Some Haitians are being allowed to remain in the U.S. at least temporarily to seek asylum or to stay under some other claim to residency, with notices to appear later before immigration authorities. 

Department of Homeland Security officials declined to give exact totals of how many migrants were released in the U.S., but they did say that most of them had specific “vulnerabilities”, like having a disability, as well as pregnant women. 

Under a Trump-era public health ordinance, the Biden administration is able to expel migrants seeking asylum in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

A federal judge last week ordered the rule to be struck down, calling it improper. However, the Biden administration is seeking an appeal and says it doesn’t intend to stop expelling migrants who entered illegally anytime soon.