Almost 15,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, at the Texas border encampment were removed just days after seeking asylum, the local mayor said. 

Last Saturday, the number of migrants peaked as they were driven by confusion over the Biden administration’s policies and misinformation on social media converged at the border crossing connecting Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

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At a news conference, Del Rio Mayor Buno Lozano called it “phenomenal news.”

Many face expulsion because they are not covered by protections recently extended by the Biden administration to the more than 100,000 Haitian migrants already in the US, citing security concerns and social unrest in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. The devastating 2020 earthquake forced many of them from their homeland, according to Associated Press.

The United States and Mexico appeared eager to end the increasingly politicised humanitarian situation that prompted the resignation of the US special envoy to Haiti and widespread outrage after images emerged of border agents manoeuvring their horses to forcibly block and move migrants.

President Joe Biden stated on Friday that the agents’ handling of the horses was “horrible” and that “people will pay” as a result. While the government investigates, the agents have been assigned administrative responsibilities.

“There will be consequences,” Biden told reporters. “It’s an embarrassment, but it’s beyond an embarrassment — it’s dangerous, it’s wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world and sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are.”

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Meanwhile, Homeland Security has said that nearly 2,000 Haitians have been rapidly expelled on flights since Sunday under pandemic powers that deny people the chance to seek asylum. About 3,900 were being processed for a possible return to Haiti or placement in US immigration court proceedings. Others have been released in the US with notices to appear in court or to report to immigration authorities, and some returned to Mexico.

With inputs from the Associated Press