WASHINGTON — Haitians deported from the U.S. on Tuesday assaulted the pilots on board one of the flights when it arrived in Port-au-Prince and injured three U.S. immigration officers, according to a source familiar with internal reports of the incident.
Unrest broke out shortly after a flight carrying single adult men arrived and released the men to Haitian authorities on the airport tarmac. Then, according to the source, several of the men stormed another recently arrived flight 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, while the families were still on board. Three ICE officers were also attacked on that airplane, each suffering non-life-threatening injuries, the source said.
Sept. 21, 202102:51
The attacks come as the United States ramps up its deportations of Haitians after more than 15,000 overwhelmed the U.S. border by congregating under one bridge in Del Rio, Texas in just a matter of days. As of Tuesday, just over 1,000 of the Haitian migrants had been deported to Haiti, according to two sources familiar with the operations.
A total of 4,000 have been either deported or moved to other processing centers along the border, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the crowd in Del Rio will dissipate in the coming days.
“Expect to see dramatic results within the next 48 to 96 hours,” he said.
But after the assaults on Tuesday, some inside DHS worry that they do not have enough security at the airports to safely land deportation flights, according to the source familiar with the incident.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
