DHS Secretary: As Many as 12,000 Illegal Haitian Immigrants Released Into the US in Recent Days

Thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly Haitians, live in a primitive, makeshift camp under the International Bridge that spans the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico while waiting to be detained and processed by Border Patrol in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 21, 2021. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on Sept. 26 that a significant number of Haitian illegal immigrants who had amassed along the U.S.—Mexico border last week are being released into the United States.

About 12,400 of 17,000 Haitians are having their cases heard by immigration courts, Mayorkas said, adding that some 5,000 are being processed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Only about 3,000 are in detention, he said.