KINGSVILLE, Texas — New images have come to light of Monday's incident just south of Kingsville, Texas, involving some Haitian migrants and the Department of Homeland Security.
The group of migrants were being transported by bus to Brownsville when there was a revolt. The Kleberg County Sheriff's Office said the migrants fought with agents, forced the bus to stop, and then escaped. Footage of the incident was brought to Governor Greg Abbott's attention during a news conference Tuesday.
"We saw something yesterday that we knew was going to happen," said Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council.
Judd was in Del Rio at the news conference with Governor Abbott spotlighting the Haitian migrant crisis there.
"If you are targeting Texas to come to, we are going to show up in force and shut down the border," Abbott said.
"When those people who were in buses south of Kingsville, Texas, when they found out they were going to be sent back to Haiti, they took the bus over and they fled," Judd said.
Kleberg County Sheriff Richard Kirkpatrick was one of a number of lawmen who showed up to the scene to help out the ICE agents.
"These illegal migrants assaulted the federal agents on the bus and somehow they managed to escape custody for a brief moment in time, and agents then had to chase them down again and get into another scuffle on the side of the road with these individuals to try and detain them," Kirkpatrick said.
The desperation seen in the Haitian migrants trying to cross the border is partly due to a recent earthquake that destroyed or damaged nearly 130,000 homes. Haiti's president was also assassinated earlier this year. The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory telling Americans not to visit Haiti because of the civil unrest, crime and COVID-19.
Eddie Canales, a South Texas immigrant rights activist, said those Haitians acted in desperation because they are fearful of returning to their country. He believes the Haitian migrants at our state's border should be welcomed into the country and not deported back to Haiti.
"There needs to be immediate humanitarian parole given to the Haitians in this country or you know, temporary protected status, or as refugees," Canales said. "Figure out what's going on. Did any actions take place in Haiti to keep people from leaving in terms of relief after the earthquake? I doubt it very much."
The U.S. did commit to send $32 million for Haiti earthquake relief, but the United Nations said a total of $200 million is needed.
As far as those Haitians at the border, Canales feels that their asylum claims should be heard instead of having them placed on a plane and flown back to Haiti.
3News spoke with one woman who had sent in photos and video of the bus incident to the newsroom. She didn't want to be identified but she did agree to speak with us about the situation.
"It's scary. It's scary because it's not going to get any better. It doesn't seem it's going to get any better anytime soon."
During the governor's news conference Tuesday, it was disclosed that there were still some 8,600 Haitian migrants at the Del Rio border. It's unclear if Homeland Security will continue to bus anymore of those folks from there to Brownsville after what happened south of Kingsville on Monday.
3News did contact the U.S. Border Patrol about this incident. They said responded with a statement sayin the request "would need to go to ICE Public Affairs Office as it was their bus," and that "the individuals were not in Border Patrol custody."
3News also reached out to the Department of Homeland Security but they declined to comment.