Last Updated on February 17, 2022
Federal assault charges have been filed against two Haitian migrants after they bit ICE officials on a deportation flight, according to the Washington Examiner. The incident took place as the deportation plane was taxiing on the runway in Del Rio, Texas. Thousands of Haitian illegal immigrants remain camped under a Del Rio bridge seeking entry to the United States.
On Monday morning, a flight that was set to depart Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio was forced to return to the gate following a disturbance on the plane. At least two passengers had left their sets and attacked ICE officials. Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers were also attacked. [The Haitians] all realized they were going back to Haiti and lost it,” a federal law enforcement told the Washington Examiner. A second deportation flight was cancelled on Monday morning after passengers were “being disruptive and not complying” while the plane was on the tarmac. “They were fighting personnel on the plane,” a witness to the second incident told The Examiner.
Earlier in the week, a group of Haitian migrants being bused to San Antonio briefly hijacked the bus and attempted to escape. “They did break out of the bus, and they did escape,” a senior federal law enforcement official said on Tuesday.
NEW: U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz says there are currently 12,600 migrants under the bridge in Del Rio. Told me single adult men will be expelled via Title 42, but most family units will be processed and released into US w/ NTA (notice to appear). @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/JhaS3YB4pX
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 19, 2021
In another incident, several Haitians assaulted pilots and injured three immigration officials after a flight carrying only male migrants landed in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, per a report from NBC. The incident took place shortly after the plane landed when the passengers stormed another plane that was carrying families. The men assaulted the pilots of that plane, who work for a government contractor licensed to fly deportation flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three ICE officials were also injured in the attack, according to the report.
A DHS spokesperson confirmed the Port-au-Prince attack in a statement. “On Tuesday, Sept. 21, some adult migrants caused two separate disruptions on the tarmac after deplaning in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haitian crowd control officers responded to both incidents and resolved the situations. ICE fully respects the rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions, while continuing to perform its immigration enforcement mission consistent with our priorities, federal law and agency policy,” the spokesperson said.
The DHS also reported that over 4,000 Haitian migrants had been deported this week while deportation flights are scheduled to ramp up. However, as National File previously reported, thousands of Haitian illegal immigrants have reportedly been released into the United States since the Del Rio crisis began. Haitians have been freed on a “very, very large scale” in recent days, according to one U.S. official.
