According to reports, Haitian migrants are being lead to Texas by following detailed instructions sent through WhatsApp.
One Haitian migrant, Fabricio Jean, claims that he received route directions from a brother in New Jersey who had previously followed the dangerous instructions to cross the Texas border.
He told AP after reaching Del Rio, that “You will need about 20,000 pesos (about $1,000 U.S. dollars) for the buses. You need to take this bus to this location and then take another bus.”
Apps like Facebook, Youtube, and WhatsApp, are used by migrants to share information that can get distorted as it speeds through immigrant communities, directing migration flows. This is especially true for Haitians who speak Creole and French and have resided in Latin America since the tragic 2010 earthquake, enticed by the once-booming economies of Brazil and Chile.
Since the 2016 Obama administration suddenly stopped a program that first permitted them to do something on humanitarian grounds, thousands of people have been stuck at the Mexican border.
After President Joe Biden took office, the online messages across the Mexican town of Ciudad Acuña across from Del Rio began to reverse some of the immigration policies of Trump’s administration.
The drug and gang violence seen elsewhere along the border was spared from Ciudad Acuña. According to immigrant advocates, some of the social media posts suggest are human smugglers trying to get their businesses booming.
Nicole Phillips of the San Diego-based Haitian Bridge Alliance said that Haitian migrants started to cross the border this year, but their numbers skyrocketed following a policy the Biden administration that opened the door shortly to some asylum applicants.
The program authorized a number of individuals in Mexico who were considered to be at great risk by humanitarian groups.
People panicked when it stopped in August, and messages advocating Ciudad Acuna “went viral,” according to Phillips.
“That’s why they rushed at this time to get in,” she said. “They realized they wouldn’t be able to get in legally through a port-of-entry like they were hoping.”
One member of a Facebook community for Haitians in Chile offered explicit information on routes through Mexico last week. It listed paths to avoid as well as transport companies to use.
“Good luck and be careful,” said the post, written in Haitian Creole.
In the comments, another user shared a different route. Members of the group have since warned of dreadful living conditions in Del Rio and the threat of deportation.
The International Organization for Migration discovered that the majority of the 238 Haitians surveyed in March after passing through the Darien Gap received route information from family or friends who had made the dangerous journey.
About 15% stated they got their directions from the internet.
According to agency spokesman Jorge Gallo, the migrants were persuaded to believe that crossing the gap was “difficult but not impossible.”
However, just as similar communications drove a large number of Haitians to Del Rio, news that the Biden administration was deporting hundreds of people along the Texas border forced some to reconsider their plans.
After receiving an audio message from a cousin via WhatsApp, a 32-year-old Haitian mother, while spent 4 years in Chile, arrived in Del Rio with her two teenage children and purchased bus tickets to Mexico City.
The recording said, “Wait in Mexico until this month is over. They will pick up everyone under the bridge. After that, they will give me the contact to enter Miami.”
The AP is withholding the woman’s name to protect her safety.
WhatsApp allows people to exchange information about crossing borders, but its policy blocks posts that ask for money for services that facilitate human smuggling.
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