The number of Haitian migrants attempting to cross into the United States fell by more than 90 percent in October after the Biden administration aggressively ramped up its use of deportation flights, according to preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by The Washington Post.

CBP figures show about 1,000 Haitians were taken into custody along the Mexico border last month, down from 17,638 in September, when huge crowds waded across the Rio Grande to a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Tex., creating a humanitarian and political crisis for the Biden administration.

Biden officials responded to the Del Rio surge by using the Title 42 emergency public health order to “expel” more than 8,500 migrants back to Haiti, sending as many as seven flights per day from Texas to the destitute Caribbean nation.

The mass expulsions were denounced by immigrant advocacy groups and members of the president’s own party, who noted that Haitian families — including thousands of women and children — were being returned at higher rates than migrants from other nations.