U.S. border officials lack space to temporarily hold hundreds of Haitian immigrants who decided to leave Brazil experiencing a severe recession to the United States. According to an official of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Ysidro (CA), more than 900 Haitians waiting to cross at Tijuana in Mexico and asked the Border Patrol to send Creole staff as interpreter for interviews with migrants.

The Haitian arrests in the south of Mexico are also on the rise, where some 500 illegal migrants arrived last week and are held in the Administrative Detention Center in Tapachula. Another phenomenon with which the authorities are struggling with Haitian migrants is that the latter pretend to be Congolese. Mexico can not deport them to the DRC because it has no diplomatic relations with that country and therefore must release them...

US border officials need more space until these migrants go through the interview process. After this process, migrants can make an asylum application and be released until the date of their audience that will accept or reject their request.

Joseph Crook, the State Department spokesman stated that the Agency is "concerned for the safety of all migrants throughout the region, including Haitian migrants seeking to journey northward through South and Central America and Mexico," seeking assistance from other governments.

The number of Haitians waiting to enter California last week, represents a peak in a migration trend. For fiscal year 2016, between October 2015 and July 2016, 3,538 Haitian migrants arrived illegally in the United States, over 3,000 entered from San Ysidro, San Diego (Source : U.S. Customs and Border Protection) while for fiscal year 2015 only 712 Haitians have attempted to enter the United States without legal documentation.

SL/ HaitiLibre