US Border Security totally removes migrant shelters from Del Rio, Texas

A border camp in Texas where about 15,000 migrants have set up temporary shelters has been cleared as the government pursues a controversial policy of expelling asylum seekers from the United States.

Workers on Friday removed the last rubble from makeshift shelters and tents in Del Rio, Texas, while state troops streamed along the shores of the Rio Grande, on the border with Mexico, to discourage new crossings.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "There are no more migrants in the camp under the Del Rio International Bridge".

Nearly 30,000 migrants, many of them from Haiti, have been camping under the Del Rio International Bridge for the past two weeks.

According to Mayorkas, more than 12,000 migrants will have a chance to defend their case before US immigration judges, an estimated 8,000 will return to Mexico voluntarily, and 2,000 will be deported.

More could be suspended in the coming days under pandemic forces depriving people of the chance to seek asylum. A US official with immediate knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that six flights were planned for Haiti on Friday, with seven on Saturday and six on Sunday, though subject to change.

Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups have slammed the repatriation of Haitian migrants to a troubled country that some left more than ten years ago.

Images of a border guard using reins as whips to contain Haitian migrants sparked outrage earlier this week.

"We know that these images have painfully conveyed the worst elements of our country's ongoing fight against systemic racism," Mayorkas told a news conference, promising a speedy investigation into the matter.

Bruno Lozano, the mayor of Del Rio, praised agents for wanting to provide food and medical care, saying there were no deaths.

He said his officials were searching the brush along the Rio Grande to make sure no one was hiding before the international bridge, which was to take place early on Sunday night, would be reopened. The images led to the US Special Envoy resigning from Haiti.

President Joe Biden said the way the agents behaved was 'awful' and that 'people will pay.

'It's an embarrassment, but it's above embarrassment - it's dangerous, it's wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world and sends the wrong message home. It's simply not who we are," Biden said.