The U.S. knew in July that thousands of Haitians were heading to the U.S. border, but a failure to share intelligence and an internal debate over whether to increase deportations left immigration officials ill-equipped to handle the 28,000 who converged on a Texas bridge last month, three U.S. officials said…

Two of the officials said that the debate over starting deportations before the migrant surge…was a political battle between progressives and others at DHS and that the progressives won, delaying deportation flights.

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Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis all had information as far back as July that indicated that large groups of Haitians were making their way…to the U.S. border…But the intelligence was not shared widely enough within DHS and across agencies…

Throughout the summer, two of the officials said, there were also disagreements within the Biden administration over whether it should increase deportations of Haitians already in the U.S. illegally…

Ultimately, the Biden administration opted not to ramp up deportations, and it then halted all deportation flights to the impoverished island country shortly after the earthquake…

The disagreement over whether to ramp up deportations reveals internal divides within the administration over how harsh border policies should be…

The three officials said DHS is conducting an internal review of the factors that led to the rapid increase in the number of Haitian migrants in Del Rio. One said the review will allow the government to “allocate appropriate resources” to prepare for future surges. More than 20,000 Haitians are already in northern Colombia and thousands more are in Panama who may soon decide to move toward the U.S…

What are your thoughts about the administration’s response? Share in the comments below, and add a prayer for appropriate border controls to be enforced.

(Excerpt from NBC News. Article by Julia Ainsley. Photo Credit: John Moore/Getty Images).