Migrants rushed across the border hours before pandemic-related asylum restrictions were set to expire Thursday, fearing the new policies would make it much harder to enter the United States.
The Biden administration has been introducing measures to replace Title 42, which suspended the right to seek asylum since March 2020 in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced a rule to make it extremely difficult for anyone traveling through another country, such as Mexico, to apply for asylum.. It also introduced GPS-tracked curfews for families released into the United States before initial asylum screenings.
In Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, migrants arrived steadily on Wednesday, stripping naked before descending a steep bank clinging to plastic bags full of clothing. They slowly entered the river, including a man with a baby in an open suitcase on his head.
On the American side, they changed into dry clothes and pushed their way through the concertinas. Many have turned themselves in to authorities, hoping to be released to remain legally while they pursue their cases in clogged immigration courts, which takes years.
William Contreras of Venezuela said Title 42 was favorable to the people of his beleaguered South American country, having heard that many before him had been released in the United States.
“What we understand is that they are not going to let anyone else in,” said Contreras’s friend Pablo, who declined to give his last name because he planned to cross the border illegally. “That is the reason for our urgency to cross the border today.”
Border Patrol apprehended about 10,000 migrants on Tuesday, one of its busiest days, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
That number is nearly double the daily average of about 5,200 in March, the latest publicly available data, and close to the 11,000 that US officials have forecast as the upper limit of a surge they envision after Title 42.
More than 27,000 people were in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection, the official said, well beyond capacity. In March there were 8,600 detainees.
Border Patrol agents on Wednesday were ordered to begin releasing immigrants in any border sector that reached 125% holding capacity, with instructions to report to an immigration office within 60 days. They were also ordered to start releasing migrants if the average detention time exceeded 60 hours or if 7,000 migrants were apprehended across the border in a single day.
In Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas, some migrant shelters had empty beds because migrants abandoned them to cross into the US.
Enrique Valenzuela, who coordinates migrant relief efforts in the state of Chihuahua, said the population of the city’s migrant shelters was half of the nearly 3,000 who were staying there. A few weeks ago.
While Title 42 prevented many from seeking asylum, it had no legal consequences and encouraged repeat attempts. After Thursday, the migrants face a five-year ban from entering the US and possible criminal prosecution.
At the same time, the administration has introduced expansive new legal pathways in the US Up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela can enter if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport. Processing centers are opening in Guatemala, Colombia and elsewhere. Up to 1,000 can enter daily via land crossings with Mexico if they get an appointment on an online application.
In San Diego, more than 100 migrants, many of them Colombian families, slept under plastic sheeting between two border walls, guarded by Border Patrol agents who had nowhere to take them for processing.
Albino León, 51, bought chicken from Tijuana vendors through slats on the wall that borders San Diego because the cookies agents gave him, his wife and daughter left them hungry. The news that Title 42 was ending prompted the family to take the trip now.
“With the changes they are making to the laws, it is now or never,” said León, who flew to Mexico from Colombia and passed a first border wall to reach US soil.
While US officials are predicting more crossings after Title 42 ends at 11:59. p.m. Thursday EDT: President Joe Biden said Tuesday the border will be “chaotic for a while,” some weren’t sure. Soraya Vásquez, deputy director of Al Otro Lado, an advocacy group active in Tijuana, said crossings could decrease immediately, but migration would persist.
Miguel Meza, director of migrant programs for Catholic Relief Services, which runs 26 migrant shelters in Mexico, estimates that there are some 55,000 migrants in border cities facing the United States. More arrive daily from the south, as well as migrants expelled by the United States back to Mexico.
Carmen Josefina Characo, a Venezuelan woman who arrived in Matamoros with her adult daughter, said she was determined to continue testing a US government mobile app to win a place to enter the US at a land crossing. . Demand has far exceeded supply, exasperating many newcomers.
“People who have just arrived start to hear the stories of others who have been here longer and start to get alarmed. Oh, you’ve been here four months. Well, I just arrived and I’m going to cross,’” Characo said.
Migrants have affected some US cities in the past year.
In New York for that matter, Mayor Eric Adams issued an executive order on Wednesday temporarily modifying the legislation by which the city is obliged to give shelter to all homeless people, this due to the high number of asylum seekers who have come to the big Apple.
2023-05-11 10:43:00
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