US steps up plan to expel Haitian migrants from Texas border city

Thousands of people in Del Rio to be put on ‘removal flights’ within next three days, officials say.

The United States says it will step up the number of “removal flights” for thousands of migrants who have arrived in the Texas border city of Del Rio.

The migrants, many of them Haitian, were being held in an area controlled by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) beneath the Del Rio International Bridge, which carries traffic across the Rio Grande river into Mexico.

Video footage showed thousands of people under and around the bridge. US media put the total figure at close to 14,000.