“The situation at the border is very serious, very challenging and very difficult,” Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), acknowledged on Friday during his visit to the southern border facing to the end of Title 42 on May 11.
From the border city of Brownsville, Texas, Mayorkas said the purpose of his trip was “to review our operations and see our planning for the end of title 42”, while pointing to the need for a “regional” and “community” effort to tackle irregular migration.
Mayorkas emphasized that the preparations include measures announced in recent days, such as cooperation with Panama and Colombia to launch a prevention campaign that persuades migrants not to cross the Darien jungle. In addition, the continuation of the humanitarian parole and the opening of processing centers of migrants in the region.
The DHS secretary reiterated that as of May 12 they will implement an expedited removal process, as well as a rule that establishes the ineligibility for asylum of those who do not apply for legal immigration alternatives and cross illegally.
As he addressed the press, behind Mayorkas, a line of migrants could be seen under a tent provided by the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who were waiting to board buses that would transport them to other processing centers or checkpoints. entry to be expelled to Mexico.
The Brownsville border, in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, is currently one of the points through which the largest number of migrants enter, especially Venezuelans, a CBP official reported Thursday.
In this sector, the CBP has more than 6,000 migrants in custody, and some 4,000 of them are Venezuelans. The DHS, for its part, noted that every day, at least three groups of hundreds of Venezuelans are expelled from Brownsville for illegally crossing into US territory.
Resumption of deportation flights
Earlier Friday, a DHS official anticipated that they will continue to conduct dozens of flights deportation weekly once Title 8 is returned. Under this provision expedited repatriations and deportations will begin. The number of flights with migrants “will depend on demand.”
“We continue to increase the resources, the personnel, the transport capacities, the planes to carry out a greater number of expulsions each week,” Mayorkas told the conference.
Prior to his appearance in front of the press, Mayorkas visited the facilities of Port Isabel, another border city, where he met with agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE). “Removal flights are carried out many times a week for those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the US,” Mayorkas insisted on his social media.
In McAllen, Texas, Mayorkas met with CBP officers, who assured him that they are already “seeing a large number of encounters” with migrants.
Mayorkas also highlighted the allocation of 332.5 million dollars to local governments and non-profit organizations “to help the communities” that receive undocumented migrants while they await the results of their immigration procedures.
Given the increase in migrants arriving at the border, Carry Huffman, deputy commissioner of the CBP, assured that during the last 24 months the agency has increased its capacity “to prepare us for this.”
Raúl Ortiz, head of the US Border Patrol, also present at Mayorkas’ appearance, added that “we knew we were going to see some increases here and that has happened in the last two weeks.”
Ortiz pointed out that the additional 1,500 troops The Department of Defense that will be mobilized to the border will go specifically to El Paso, Texas, “to allow resources that were dedicating to the area to go to other sectors that require additional capacity.”
Deployment of troops on the border
In El Paso, the National Guard recently began installing a new chain-link fence and barbed wire along about 30 kilometers of the border. Some migrants decided to settle next to the fence to wait for an opportunity to cross.
“They are there, all the military on that side, the gringos are on that side waiting for you to take the step to seize and deport you. They are still there, they have not taken off,” said Mauricio Blanco, a Venezuelan migrant who was on the Ciudad Juárez side.
The end of Title 42, the public health order issued in 2020 by the United States government to stop the spread of COVID-19, which served to stop the arrival of undocumented citizens across the southern border, will end on May 11.
[César Contreras, periodista de la VOA, colaboró en este informe]
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