Migrant camp in US border town cleared out

Washington: The last remaining migrants, mostly Haitians, have departed a temporary camp under a bridge in Del Rio, a border town in the US state of Texas, according to local media reports.

A CNN team captured images under the Del Rio International Bridge of the final two buses as they departed for US Customs and Border Protection processing centres on Friday, Xinhua news agency.

At its peak, there were almost 15,000 migrants living under the bridge earlier this month.

The soaring influx of migrants in Del Rio is a result of word-of-mouth or social media posts saying that the border at Del Rio was open, the CNN report quoted US Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz as saying.

Earlier this week, Texan authorities sealed off the border in Del Rio by placing "a wall of vehicles" extending for miles as a makeshift barrier along the Rio Grande river bank separating the border town from Ciudad Acuna in Mexico.

According to Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott, the state is spending $3 billion to address border security and will continue moving state law enforcement to "reduce the unprecedented influx of people trying to cross the border".

Local media outlet The El Paso Times reported on Thursday that Mexican State Police also guarded the south bank of the Rio Grande with vehicles spacing out along a path that runs alongside the river.

The White House is facing fierce criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over the issue.

Republicans have slammed President Joe Biden's administration for "lack of action" on curbing the immigration crisis while Democrats criticised its large-scale deportation of Haitian migrants.

Video footage and images showing mounted border agents on horse patrol in Del Rio apparently using their reins as whips against migrants circulated earlier this week, stirring public outrage over the "inhumane" hostile treatment.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has suspended horse patrolling in the town.

Earlier on Thursday, Special Envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote resigned in protest of what he called "the US' inhumane, counterproductive decision" to deport Haitian migrants to their home country.