A Haitian man who was among the nearly 15,000 migrants who were turned away from requesting asylum at the southern United States border will now do so in Mexico, forgoing the American Dream for a country where he said he's confident he can attain the same personal goals.
'My dream is not the United States, my dream is coming here and to work, to find employment,' Gilbert Betoux told Univision as he and dozens of Haitian nationals milled around Mexico's Commission for Refugee Assistance in Mexico City, almost 870 miles away from the squalid makeshift camp that was disbanded Friday under the Ciudad Acuña-Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
'What I can achieve in the United States I can still achieve here,' he added matter of factly.
By Friday, no migrants remained at the Texas border city encampment where the asylum seekers - most of them from Haiti - had gathered since last weekend.
Haitian national Gilbert Betoux was among the nearly 15,000 migrants - most from Haiti - who converged at a makeshift camp under the Ciudad Acuña-Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, to seek asylum from the U.S. government. But he gave up his shot at the American dream, telling Univision on Thursday: 'My dream is not the United States, my dream is coming here and to work, to find employment. 'What I can achieve in the United States I can still achieve here'
Workers clear debris from the site of a makeshift border migrant camp along the Ciudad Acuña-Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, where all of the nearly 15,000 migrants -most of them Haitian foreign nationals - who had gathered since last Saturday had been cleared out
Migrants await to be processed along the Del Rio, Texas side of the Ciudad Acuña-Del Rio International Bridge after crossing the Rio Grande river into the U.S. from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico last Sunday
Almost 2,000 people have been placed on flights and returned to Haiti, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.
There are about 3,900 Haitians still being processed and awaiting to find out if they will be sent back to the Caribbean nation or if they will be placed in United States immigration court proceedings.
Others were released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court or to report to immigration authorities.
Patrick Jean was among several thousand who saw their dreams of reaching the U.S. dashed and then managed to cross back to Mexico, where he eventually joined Betoux and the rest of their fellow countrymen in the nation's capital to apply for asylum.
'I crossed to
