Fact Check-How Haitian migrants make their way to the U.S. border
Users on social media are claiming that displaced Haitians are not, as widely documented, making the perilous journey to the southern U.S. border independently but are receiving support from corrupt authorities and other quarters.
One Facebook post with 13,000 shares includes a map of the region and reads, “Am I the only one that wonders how 14,000 Haitians traveled 2,000 miles to end up under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas? I doubt they walked.” (here) Another post with 10,000 shares (here) includes text that reads, “I need someone to [explain] to me just how thousands of dirt poor Haitians got from Haiti to Del Rio, Texas… 2000 miles and an ocean away!”
Comments indicate users are suspicious or do not understand how the migrants make their way from Haiti to the U.S. border. One user wrote, “Sponsored…. And corruption by the Mexican authorities &$&& mucho dinero!! Who put $$$ ? The ones who want the USA destroyed…” while another wrote, “They flew them there.”
HAITIANS AT THE BORDER
Amid deteriorating conditions in migrant camps on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. authorities on Wednesday tried to deal with thousands of the mostly Haitian migrants that have gathered, releasing some in south Texas while deporting others on flights.
Wade McMullen, an attorney with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization, said several hundred people, mostly pregnant women and parents with children, had been released in Del Rio, Texas over the past several days, straining resources at a local volunteer-run welcome center. The center does not have overnight capacity, he said.
The U.S. government said it was continuing to fly hundreds of people, including families, back to Haiti, which has been hit by recent political turmoil and natural disasters (here).
Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has a troubled history. In July, the president was assassinated, and in August a major earthquake and powerful storm hit the country (here).
U.S. politicians have criticized Biden's handling of the situation, with some opponents calling it a "disaster" (here).
MIGRANT ROUTE
Haitians are among other migrants from other Caribbean, Central and Latin American countries who undergo a treacherous journey northward in search of safety and opportunity in the United States. Contrary to the implication of these social media posts, their journey has been documented.
Most Haitians currently at the border have made their way through Central and South America, as documented in a Reuters video here .
An NBC News video (here) documents an influx of Haitians making their way north from Panama and other Latin American countries in September 2021. NBC reported that Haitians who had lived for years in other South American counties like Chile and Brazil are deciding to make the journey to the United States because of the pandemic and seeking new economic opportunities.
USA Today reported (here) that many of the migrants currently at the border were likely already in Central America, pushed there over the last decade by natural disasters and political instability in their home country.
A France24 video shows Haitian migrants in northwestern Colombia heading northward (here).
According to the AP, “Nearly all Haitians reach the U.S. on a well-worn route: Fly to Brazil, Chile or elsewhere in South America. If jobs dry up, slowly move through Central America and Mexico by bus and on foot to wait — perhaps years — in northern border cities like Tijuana for the right time to enter the United States and claim asylum.” (here)
Many pursued this route after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Spokesperson for Central America and Mexico Sibylla Brodzinsky also told Reuters via email, “A significant number of Haitian nationals on the move through Latin America are originating in Chile Argentina and Brazil, where many have lived for as long as decade, especially since the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010.”
“UNHCR has been following recent large onward movements through Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia in South America then through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico,” she added. “UNHCR has not detected a significant number of people fleeing Haiti following the recent tragic events there, including the August earthquake coming on the heels of the assassination of the president in July.”
The journey itself is difficult and dangerous. Nicole Morgan, an attorney at the nonprofit RAICES, told Reuters via email that “most of the Haitians who are coming to the southern border have walked through at least 10 countries to get here. The travel is done by walking mostly and with some bus riding. It is perilous. Most clients speak of being beaten and robbed between Colombia and Panama. Many people die on the journey.Women have had miscarriages during the journey as well.”
VERDICT
Missing context. Haitian migrants usually arrive to the U.S. after making their way north from Central and South America.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .
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