Southern border crisis apparent in Del Rio, Texas

NEAR CUIDAD ACUNA, Mexico (NBC) – Migrants continue to wade through the Rio Grande River to cross the US-Mexico border between Ciudad Acuña on the Mexican side and Del Rio, Texas.

Migrants, mostly Haitians but also Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, crossed the river in both directions

Some walked through the waist-deep water to the US side to get in line to be processed by the US Customs and Border Patrol. Some who waited on the US side for asylum processing for several days are going back into Mexico to stock up on essentials they say they are not receiving on the American side at a large makeshift camp they set up.

US border agents began expelling plane-loads of migrants from the area with repatriation flights that started to arrive in Haiti Sunday.

The sprawling camp under the international bridge between Mexico and the US attracted more than 12,000 migrants at one point.

It marks a new challenge for US authorities who have sought to reduce the flow of Central Americans and now hundreds of Haitians who have fled rampant poverty, gang violence and recent natural disasters back home.