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World & Nation


CONFINED TO U.S. BORDER CAMP, HAITIAN MIGRANTS WADE TO MEXICO FOR SUPPLIES

A man shields his face as he crosses the Rio Grande with a youngster on his
shoulders.
(John Moore / Getty Images)
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By Molly Hennessy-FiskeHouston Bureau Chief 

Sept. 20, 2021 7:08 PM PT
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CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico — 

The treacherous waters of the Rio Grande rushed by as Isnac Joseph admitted he
didn’t know how to swim. But the 31-year-old father of a hungry 2-year-old son
in the migrant border camp nevertheless braved the river — joining a daily
pilgrimage of hundreds of other Haitians — leaving the U.S. side to buy food,
water and other necessities in Mexico.

According to the migrants, they’ve been forced to traverse the river daily to
buy food because they’re not allowed to cook in the camp and the U.S. has failed
to provide any real sustenance. The camp has grown during the last week to more
than 14,000.

Join our reporters for a live conversation about Haitian migrants at the border

At 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, Sept. 21, Houston Bureau Chief Molly Hennessy-Fiske,
Mexico City Bureau Chief Patrick J. McDonnell and Foreign and National Editor
Jeffrey Fleishman will be live on Twitter Spaces discussing the Haitian migrants
at the U.S./Mexico border.

Set a reminder here to listen in on the conversation.

On Monday morning, Texas state troopers parked along the U.S. side of the river
looked on as migrants picked their way down the muddy banks toward Mexico, some
toting babies. Many said the only food their families received at the camp each
day was a sandwich, bottle of water and a few cookies.

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Mostly men crossed the hazardous stretch of river, about half the length of a
football field, because few at the camp knew how to swim.

World & Nation

Photos: U.S. begins removing Haitian migrants, but they continue to flock to
Texas border

Haitian migrants continue to pour into Texas. But hoping to avoid deportation,
many decide to cross the Rio Grande back to Mexico.

Sept. 20, 2021

“My child is hungry, but the water is fast. I’m afraid,” said Joseph, who was
crossing to buy milk for his son.

“It’s a sacrifice,” said Makendi Charles, 29, who also didn’t know how to swim
and crossed to get $300 that relatives in Haiti had sent to a bank so he could
buy food for his wife and 3-year-old son. “I have to get something for my son
because it’s so hot. He tells me, ‘Papa, my belly hurts and my nose, too.’ He
has a cold, a cough.”

The migrants clung to a yellow rope strung across the river, teetering on river
rocks and stumbling at times in the weeds. They were in a hurry. Temperatures
have been rising above 100 degrees in the afternoons, taking a toll on pregnant
women and children.

Some Haitians try crossing the Rio Grande while holding their belongings in a
garbage bag.
(John Moore / Getty Images)
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On Sunday, at least one woman at the camp passed out and had to be removed by
National Guard troops. Children lay limp and listless in the arms of parents who
said they couldn’t afford medicine from Mexican pharmacies. There’s no clinic at
the camp.

Migrants also hurried to retrieve supplies Monday because they knew the Rio
Grande would rise chest high by 4 p.m., with currents one man compared to an
anaconda, squeezing as it sucks you under. On Sunday, a woman and baby were
briefly swept underwater, according to several migrants who witnessed the close
call. Both survived, they said.

Covering the issues, politics, culture and lifestyle of the Latino community in
L.A., California and beyond.

Once in Acuña, Mexico, the migrants faced other obstacles. Many spoke Spanish,
having spent years living in South America, but they stood out in the sleepy
border town of about 160,000. Some complained of price gouging, not just by
vendors on the riverbank, but also by taxi drivers and stores in town. Many had
exhausted their savings paying for their journey north, which they said cost
$5,000 to $11,000 per family.

Haitian immigrants cross the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, and back into
Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.
(John Moore / Getty Images)

The migrants formed lines outside El Dorado fried chicken, Aguas Frescas shops
and the supermarkets. Enterprising locals wheeled carts of ice cream and iced
drinks into the park near their informal crossing. Others parked in the fields
near migrants’ already well-worn tracks to sell clothes and housewares out of
their trunks, shouting prices in pesos.

“Food, chicken, 50!” a vendor shouted, and the man with the ice cream cart soon
joined in, “Ice cream, 5!”

“Trash bags!” called a father and son.

“How much?” a migrant still wet from the river asked — 10 pesos, they replied.
He bought several.

Hats cost 50 pesos, shorts 120.

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Haitian immigrants fall in the mud after wading across the Rio Grande back into
Mexico from Del Rio, Texas.
(John Moore / Getty Images)

“You’re robbing us!” Ismo Dilema complained before buying several bottles of
orange soda for 20 pesos, about a dollar each.

Dilema, 44, a tall cook with a goatee and blue and white checked shirt, was
broke. He had to borrow money to feed his wife and two children from a friend at
the camp, carrying the cash across the river in a plastic bag.

“People are buying because they’re starving,” he said before climbing back down
the muddy riverbank near others toting boxes of pizzas and rice.

World & Nation

U.S. begins removing Haitian migrants, but they continue to flock to Texas
border

The Border Patrol confronts massive, growing camp of Haitian migrants in Del
Rio, Texas.

Sept. 19, 2021

Mexican vendors said they were making a slim profit and running steep risks
working amid the chaos, where tempers occasionally flared and Mexican police
could crack down at any moment.

“We’re worried they could take things,” said vendor Andres Macario, 16, who had
been selling drinks to the migrants since they arrived last week.

They prefer Coke and orange juice, he said — no tortillas.

Haitian migrant Ismo Dilema, left, buys food near a crossing to Del Rio, Texas.
(Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)

Migrants said feeding their families daily at the camp costs at least 1,000
pesos, about $50; singles get by on about $20. Many returning to the camp Monday
afternoon said they were running out of cash and had contacted relatives in the
U.S. and Haiti for help.

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The migrants had heard about the U.S. flying people back to Haiti last week, and
wondered aloud whether they, too, would be expelled if they stayed at the camp.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, in Del Rio on Monday, said
most of the Haitians removed from the encampment have been expelled under the
authority of Title 42, a pandemic policy started by President Trump and
continued by President Biden.

Haitian immigrants cross the Rio Grande back into Mexico from Del Rio, Texas.
(John Moore / Getty Images)

Haitian migrants held at the camp said U.S. immigration officials had issued
them numbered tickets. When their numbers were called, officials told migrants
they would be reunited with relatives in the U.S. even as they were zip cuffed
and loaded into buses to be expelled.

“They say they’re going to send you to your family in the U.S. It’s a lie,” said
Stanley Moise, 25, a fish store worker in a black Puma cap, Adidas T-shirt and
shorts who said he saw fellow migrants loaded onto buses.

Politics

Senate parliamentarian won’t allow citizenship pathway for immigrants in
Democrats’ spending bill

A pathway to citizenship cannot be included in the Democrats’ reconciliation
infrastructure bill, a key Senate aide has ruled.

Sept. 19, 2021

Moise spent his last pesos Monday on six chicken dinners and water for his
family, including 2-year-old daughter Isadora.

“No person in 2021 should live in a situation like this. Each day is worse,” he
said.

He planned to cross again Tuesday to get relatives to send money for food
because, he said, “I have to help my family survive.”

U.S. Border Patrol agents watch as Haitian immigrants cross the Rio Grande back
into Mexico from Del Rio, Texas.
(John Moore / Getty Images)
Advertisement


Some Haitians said they were considering moving their families from the camp to
a shelter in Acuña on Monday, afraid that if they didn’t, they would be
expelled.

“They would be better off there. The buses are coming to deport us at any
moment,” said construction worker Gabriel Valdeim, 32, as he carried water,
yogurt, fruit ices and two chicken dinners back to his wife and 2-year-old son.

He said U.S. immigration officials at the camp called his ticket number Monday,
409, but his family didn’t board the bus.

“I’m afraid of being sent back to my country. It’s getting worse every day and
America knows it, the politicians know it,” he said.

He had 200 pesos left, about $10. On Tuesday, he hoped to contact his aunt in
Louisville, Ky., or an uncle in Miami to ask for more.

California

Biden administration appeals order to stop expelling migrants under health law

A federal judge on Thursday gave the government two weeks to halt the use of
Title 42 to expel migrants with children who are apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico
border.

Sept. 17, 2021

Immigrant advocacy groups and some lawmakers have objected to how the Border
Patrol has treated migrants at the camp. Monday afternoon, a U.S. Customs and
Border Protection boat zoomed up to the crossing, but didn’t stop the migrants.
Eight Border Patrol agents arrived on horseback and stood guard as others pulled
the boat up a ramp and away. They watched as migrants carried supplies to the
Mexican riverbank, some balanced on their heads, then climbed down into the
water and waded across. Then they left.

Still, migrants said they worried U.S. or Mexican officials would close the
crossing this week, after they blocked another shallower spot atop a dam farther
west over the weekend. As 4 p.m. approached, they hustled back.

Construction worker Frantzo Darios carried bags loaded with all he could afford
for his wife and 2-year-old son Juan: Two meals of chicken, rice and French
fries, cookies and juice. He said two months ago they left Chile, where like
many at the camp they had lived for four years, after being threatened by gangs.
The journey cost his family $8,000. He had hoped the Biden administration would
allow them to join relatives in Wellington, Fla.

“Now, with the deportations they’re doing, there’s no hope,” said Darios, 35.

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He had 400 pesos left. His son has a cough, but he can’t afford medicine, and
there’s no clinic in the camp. Did he plan to cross again Tuesday, and what
would he do if U.S. or Mexican officials closed the crossing?

“I’m not sure,” he said, “I’m not sure of anything.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

World & NationPoliticsLatino LifeImmigration and the Border
Molly Hennessy-Fiske

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Molly Hennessy-Fiske has been a staff writer since 2006 in Washington, Los
Angeles, Texas and overseas. A graduate of Harvard College, she spent a year as
Middle East bureau chief before returning as Houston bureau chief.


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