US officials are using color-coded tickets to grant Haitian migrants entry into the US, and are releasing many of the migrants at a gas station near the border that is used as a Greyhound bus stop.
Migrants with blue or yellow tickets, signifying families and pregnant women respectively, are being released, while single men with red passes and single women with green ones are slated for deportation, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, the Stripes gas station in Del Rio, Texas has become a major point for releasing those with blue or yellow tickets, as the business is used as a Greyhound stop for onward travel.
Large government-contracted buses drop off families twice a day at the gas station on a busy commercial road in the middle of town, according to the Washington Examiner.
Many migrants appear to be unaware of the meaning of the color-coded tickets, which are apparently not explained to them by authorities.
As the squalid migrant camp in Del Rio swelled to as many as 15,000 migrants last weekend, the Border Patrol issued them the color-coded, numbered tickets, then called their numbers and loaded them aboard buses and vans, some for expulsion flights, others for release.
Fearing deportation as the Biden administration began sending flights to Haiti, many migrants fled back across the border to Mexico, clutching the blue or yellow passes that would have allowed them to be quickly released.
Mackenson Veillard was one of them, and was dropped off at the Stripes gas station earlier this week with his pregnant wife.
They waited together for a Greyhound bus to take them to a cousin in San Antonio after receiving their color coded-tickets to enter the US.
The couple had spent a a week in the cramped migrant camp under the International Bridge, sleeping on concrete and getting by on bread and bottled water.
'I felt so stressed,' Veillard, 25, told the AP. 'But now, I feel better. It's like I'm starting a new life.'
The Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition has been providing support to migrants at the gas station, including running charter buses to Houston to supplement the Greyhound buses.
The Biden administration has released at least 2,000 of the migrants despite vowing to expel them at the height of the crisis. Deportation flights to Haiti were dramatically scaled back after violence on several of the flights, with migrants attacking ICE agents and pilots.
Homeland Security had planned to ramp up to seven daily flights but flew only three Wednesday and five Thursday because of issues with contractors and mechanical delays, an official said.
Seven flights were scheduled to Haiti on Friday, six on Saturday and seven on Sunday.
Most Haitians released from the Del Rio camp received requests to report to immigration officials at their destinations within 60 days. A few received notices to appear in immigration court on a specific date.
On Friday, only 225 migrants remained in the nearly empty camp where up to 15,000 had crammed in squalid conditions last weekend, according to Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens.
Owens told the AP in a text message that he´s been told all of the migrants will be removed by the end of the day.
The camp's population peaked Saturday as migrants driven by confusion over the Biden administration's policies and misinformation on social media converged at the border crossing trying to seek asylum.
Across the Rio Grande, Haitians who camped in Mexico awoke Thursday surrounded by security forces, with a helicopter thundering overhead and state police trucks spaced every 30 feet or so between their tents and the edge of the river.
After anxious minutes of indecision, dozens of families hurried into the river to cross where there was only one municipal police vehicle, calculating it was better to take their chances with U.S. authorities.
'Things are going badly,' said Michou Petion, carrying her 2-year-old son toward the river. Her husband carried bags of belongings and several pairs of sneakers dangled around his neck.
'The U.S. is deporting a lot to Haiti, now I don't know if I can enter or leave,' Petion said.
On Thursday, Rev. Al Sharpton toured the camp and claimed he witnessed 'a real catastrophic and human disgrace.'
Sharpton's press conference turned farcical however, as hecklers cut him short, accusing him of exploiting the crisis.
Sharpton was forced to end his speech after just over two minutes, as he was shouted down by furious hecklers with one yelling, 'we don't want your racism in Texas'.
President Joe Biden on Friday said it was 'horrible' to see the way agents used horses block people from crossing the Rio Grande and he promised that 'people will pay' as a result.
The incident prompted widespread outrage and is under investigation. The agents have been assigned to administrative duties and the Department of Homeland Security said it has suspended the use of horses in Del Rio.
'It was horrible, what you saw to see them treat people like they did,' Biden told reporters. 'Those people will pay, there´s an investigation underway now and there will be consequences. ... 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.'
Homeland Security has said that nearly 2,000 Haitians had 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 U.S. immigration court proceedings.
Others have been released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court or to report to immigration authorities. Thousands have returned to Mexico.
