Above: Haitian immigrants cross the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas on September 20, 2021 to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.
Migrants are gathering in their thousands at the bridge between Texas and Mexico as they try to seek refuge in the States.
A recent surge in numbers has seen the camp at the US city of Del Rio struggle to provide for the crowds, meaning migrants are regularly crossing back over the river Rio Grande to get resources from Mexico.
More than 10,000 migrants – the majority from disaster-hit Haiti – are desperately trying to start a new life in the States, but US authorities are trying anything to deter them.
The States has devised a plan with Mexico to fly migrants away from the border camps back to their Haitian homes.
Since Sunday, more than 500 Haitians have been deported from the camp by Del Rio, while Mexico has been flying refugees on its side of the border to the south, towards Guatemala.
Mexico also spoke to the Haitian government and promised repatriation flights would be offered only to those “who wish to return to their country”.
Yet, many migrants reacted furiously once they were returned to the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and were pictured chasing after the plane.
Migrants are being detained by Mexico’s national migration institute as well, picked up from the border city of Ciudad Acuna.
Filippo Grandi – the head of the UN refugee agency – has even said the continuous US expulsions could now violate international law.
Daniel Foote, Biden’s special envoy to Haiti, handed in his resignation protesting the “inhumane” expulsion of Haitian migrants on Thursday back to a country where armed gangs pose a major danger to daily life.
He said: “Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed.”
US Border Control authorities were seen using “whips”, or reins, to control crowds of migrants at the border earlier this week. The White House has now confirmed the agents photographed had been pulled from the operation.
Del Rio mayor Bruno Lozano has also admitted that the migrants’ current way of life was unsustainable, explaining: “The facilities, the quality of life, the standard of living is all being stretched beyond its capabilities. This is unprecedented, this is beyond surreal.
“This has affected everyone in the community.”
A Haitian migrant carries his daughter outside the offices of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Support in Mexico City. This is where some migrants applied to stay longer in Mexico.
A Haitian migrant rests at a shelter in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila state, Mexico, on September 22, 2021.
A migrant father carries a child while waiting for aid after arriving at the Val Verde Humanitarian Coalition facility on September 22, 2021 in Del Rio, Texas.
A boy bathes himself with a jug of water inside a migrant camp at the US-Mexico border on September 21, 2021 in Del Rio, Texas.
Immigrants sit and lie under the international bridge at a migrant camp on the US-Mexico border on September 21, 2021 in Del Rio, Texas.
A Haitian migrant rests at a shelter in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila state, Mexico, on September 22, 2021.
Migrants from Haiti line up to regularise their migratory situation outside of the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees, in Mexico City, Mexico September 22, 2021.
Haitian migrants are seen at a shelter in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila state, Mexico, on September 23, 2021.
Haitian migrants who were flown out of Texas by US authorities wait outside of Toussaint Louverture International Airport for processing by Haitian authorities, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on September 22, 2021.
An exhausted Haitian father cradles his son on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas on September 19, 2021 in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.
A group of Haitian migrants wait to board a boat to take them to Capurgana, a town near the border with Panama, in Necocli, Colombia, on September 13, 2021.
Haitian migrants gather to be tested for Covid after US authorities flew them out of a Texas border city on September 21, 2021.
Haitian migrants collect their belongings after US authorities flew them out of a Texas border city after crossing the Rio Grande river from Mexico, at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on September 21, 2021.
US Border Patrol agents on horseback try to stop Haitian migrants from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on September 19, 2021.
Mexican police stand guard near the Rio Grande river in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, at dawn on September 23, 2021, on the border with Del Rio, Texas.
A Haitian migrant woman carries a girl as she crosses the Rio Grande river to get food and water in Mexico.
Migrants seeking asylum in the US take shelter in a makeshift migrant camp near the International Bridge between Mexico and the States as they wait to be processed.
Migrants are separated as they are prepared for transport as others await to be processed in a makeshift camp along the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on September 21, 2021.