I have noticed that Fox News was playing this story up with lots of tweeted videos for a couple days, but was waiting til someone more trustworthy, i.e., not just out to attack Biden and to amplify an anti-immigration stance, had also covered it. Now they are clearly suggesting that higher-ups have instructed the FAA to nix their drone:

Biden admin looks to revive Trump-era order on migrant expulsion

By Daniel Wiessner, September 17, 20213:47 PM EDT

Sept 17 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Friday moved to revive an order put in place by then-President Donald Trump directing the expulsion of migrant families caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a day after a U.S. judge blocked it.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an appeal with a Washington-based appellate court of Thursday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who said the public health law the policy is based on, Title 42, does not authorize the expulsion of migrants.

President Joe Biden has faced growing pressure from some health experts, immigration advocates and fellow Democrats to stop applying the Title 42 order, which has essentially cut off access to asylum for hundreds of thousands of migrants.

The Biden administration has said the Title 42 policy remains necessary to limit the spread of the coronavirus, although it has not provided scientific data to support that rationale and many public health experts have opposed it.

Friday's appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit involved a lawsuit by advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Oxfam America.

Noah Gottschalk, global policy lead for Oxfam, said the group was confident the judge's decision would be upheld.

"It's extremely disappointing that the Biden administration is willing to fight tooth and nail to uphold President Trump's xenophobic immigration policies," Gottschalk said in a statement [....]

edit to add:

Reminder: a little recent history concerning  an administration in which Joe Biden served as vice-president:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 22, 2016

CONTACT Juan Gastelum, [email protected], 213-375-3149

NILC Responds to Obama Administration’s Policy Shift on Haitian Refugees

LOS ANGELES — In a sudden policy shift, the Obama administration announced today that it will move to swiftly deport survivors of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake who have sought refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

LOS ANGELES — In a sudden policy shift, the Obama administration announced today that it will move to swiftly deport survivors of Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake who have sought refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:

“Haiti’s massive earthquake in 2010 created one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, and its impacts are still being felt today. With their country still reeling from the aftermath, it is unconscionable that the Obama administration would move to deport refugees who were displaced by this devastating natural disaster. Just days ago, President Obama was on the world stage talking about our moral obligation to help people around the world who have been displaced by unlivable conditions. These people don’t just come from oceans away—they also live here in our hemisphere.

It’s troubling that the administration has not learned from the criticism for how it has treated Central American families. Rather than continuing with its failed deterrence approach of detaining and deporting those seeking refuge in our country, the administration should consider granting these families humanitarian relief. The Obama administration should not turn its back on these families who have fought so hard to seek safety here. “

# # #

Thousands of Haitians Allowed to Stay in U.S. as Texas Camp Clears Out

Border agents are making life-altering decisions for thousands of Haitian families on the border on whether they can stay in the U.S. or be deporte​d

Caption: Migrants at the Houston Family Transfer Center in Houston on Thursday.Credit...Mark Felix for The New York Times

By Edgar Sandoval, Simon Romero and Miriam Jordan @ NYTimes.com, Sept. 23, 2021 Updated 9:54 p.m. ET

long article also has many photos~

SAN ANTONIO — In Houston, nearly 2,000 Haitian migrants have arrived this week from the small border community of Del Rio, with buses pulling up to a huge shelter nearly every hour. In San Antonio, hundreds more have been allowed by the U.S. authorities onto flights to destinations as far away as New York, Boston and Miami, paperwork in their pockets permitting them to remain in the country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported about 2,000 migrants in recent days on chartered flights to Haiti as the Biden administration tries to deter more people from rushing to the border. But the authorities have also permitted thousands more to travel to cities across America, where they may live for months or years as they await immigration hearings.

“We are so happy to be in America,” said Inso Isaac, 40, who left Haiti years ago and was living in Chile until he, his wife and their 2-year-old son made the dangerous journey across several countries and arrived last week in Del Rio. On Wednesday, the family boarded a flight to New York, where they planned to stay with relatives on Long Island. “We want to start a new life here,” he said.

A chance to settle in the United States, however slim, has driven the latest surge, compelling more than 14,000 migrants to wade across the Rio Grande and into Del Rio over the past week, where they have encountered armed National Guard troops and Border Patrol agents on horseback. On Thursday, about 3,100 remained huddled in squalid conditions under the international bridge that connects Del Rio to Mexico, circumstances that have prompted outrage from both Republicans and Democrats.

[....]

It was unclear on Thursday how many Haitians had been deported as opposed to being allowed to enter the country and await asylum hearings. All told, nearly 2,000 Haitians had been returned to Haiti by late Thursday, about 40 percent of them family units, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. Resettlement groups said they were aware of about a roughly equal number from Del Rio who had been given permission to stay in the country.

[....]

At the San Antonio airport on Wednesday evening, a number of Haitian families who had been in Del Rio waited to board planes to various American cities. Mr. Isaac, holding a paper that instructed him to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office within 15 days of arriving in New York, said he would need to find a lawyer. But that felt like an easy task after spending $12,000 and several weeks traversing South and Central America by foot and bus and swimming in dirty rivers.

Nearby, Israel Fleurios, 31, and Widna Azema, 35, waited for a flight to Miami, where they planned to stay with an aunt of Mr. Fleurios’s. The couple fled Haiti five years ago and had spent several years in Brazil before making the journey to Del Rio, an unlikely spot for Haitian migrants but a border crossing that they had heard was accessible.

Ms. Azema was pregnant when they left Brazil, and she gave birth to a daughter, Bruna, in Guatemala, and carried her the rest of the distance to Texas. The couple has another daughter, Valentina, 3, who has a skeletal disorder that prevents her from walking upright.

“I think they let me through because they saw how bad she was,” Ms. Azema said of the border authorities’ reaction to Valentina’s condition. “Everybody with children like us were allowed to get through. We are appreciative.”

In a corner of the airport, many other Haitian migrants sat anxiously with their few belongings. [....]