The US-Mexico border was relatively quiet on Friday and there were few signs of the chaos that had been feared after the surge of migrants eager to cross into the US before the end of restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Less than 24 hours after the rules known as Title 42 were lifted, migrants and US authorities were still evaluating the effect of the change and of the new regulations adopted by the administration of President Joe Biden to stabilize the region.
“We didn’t see any substantial increase in immigration this morning,” said Blas Nunez-Neto, assistant secretary for immigration and border policy at the Department of Homeland Security. He added that the agency did not have specific figures because the situation is just beginning.
Migrants along the border continued to enter the Rio Grande (or Grande) River to try to enter the United States while challenging agents on the other side yelling at them to turn back. Others were trying to access the dating app from their cell phones, a crucial process in the new system. Migrants by appointment crossed a bridge in the hope of a new life. Additionally, through legal demands, they sought to stop at least some of the measures.
The Biden administration has asserted that the new system is designed to limit unauthorized crossings and provide a new legal pathway for immigrants who pay thousands of dollars to human smugglers to bring them to the United States.
Now, the United States practically prohibits immigrants from applying for asylum in the country if they did not first apply online or first seek protection in the countries through which they traveled. Families allowed to enter as their immigration cases progress will be subject to curfews and GPS monitoring.
In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, many migrants stared at their cell phones in the hope of landing a coveted appointment to enter the United States. The registration app changed, so some explained to others how to use it. Most were resigned to waiting.
In Photos | US-Mexico border after Title 42 lifting
For the purpose of Title 42, migrants will have to first apply for asylum online or seek protection first in the countries through which they traveled, before doing so in the US.
“I hope it’s a little better and that the appointments get a little faster,” said Yeremy Depablos, a 21-year-old Venezuelan traveling with seven cousins who has been waiting in the city for a month. For fear of being deported, she Depablos did not want to cross without authorization. “You have to do it the legal way.”
The legal channels promoted by the US government consist of a program that allows the entry of up to 30,000 people per month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they submit an online application, have a financial sponsor and enter by air.
About 100 processing centers will be opened in Guatemala, Colombia and elsewhere for migrants to apply for permission to enter the United States, Spain or Canada. About 1,000 people can enter daily through land crossings from Mexico, as long as they get an appointment through the app.
If it works, the system could fundamentally alter the way migrants arrive in the United States. But Biden, who is running for re-election, is coming under fire from both immigrant advocates — who say the president is abandoning more humane methods — and from Republicans, who say he is taking a soft stance on security in border.
On Friday, at the El Chaparral port of entry in Tijuana, some migrants were approaching US authorities after being unable to access the dating app. One of them, a Salvadoran named Jairo, said he was fleeing death threats in his country.
“We are afraid, the truth,” said Jairo, who is traveling with his partner and their 3-year-old son, and declined to give his last name. “We can no longer stay in Mexico and we cannot return to Guatemala or El Salvador. If the United States can’t take us, I hope they will direct us to another country.”
Farther east, small groups of Haitian migrants with appointments to request asylum crossed the Gateway International Bridge that connects Matamoros, in Mexico, with Brownsville, in Texas. They did it with the help of a non-governmental organization, getting ahead of the usual traffic of students and workers who lined up on the pedestrian section of the bridge.
In downtown El Paso, a few dozen migrants stood outside Sacred Heart Church and the shelter where nearly 2,000 migrants camped as recently as Tuesday. Religious leaders of the city work to provide refuge, legal advice and prayers for migrants as they navigate the new restrictions.
The Reverend Daniel Mora said most migrants heeded fliers distributed this week by US immigration authorities offering a “last chance” to submit to prosecution and left. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said 1,800 migrants turned themselves in to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Thursday.
Melissa López, executive director of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services in El Paso, said many migrants have been willing to follow the legal path created by the US government, but there were also fears of deportation and possible criminal penalties for those who cross. the border without legal authorization.
Rubén García, director of the Annunciation House shelter in El Paso and coordinator of a regional network of migrant shelters, said he fears that migrants passing through Mexico could be diverted by smugglers away from cities with humanitarian infrastructure to remote stretches and desolate from the border He noted that thousands of migrants are currently passing through two US immigration processing centers in El Paso amid uncertainty about subsequent deportations and controlled releases.
The pause in border crossings follows a recent surge of migrants hoping they would be allowed to stay in the United States before Title 42 restrictions expired.
Title 42 had been in effect since March 2020 and allowed border agents to quickly return asylum seekers across the border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The United States has declared an end to the national emergency, ending the restrictions.
Although Title 42 prevented many from seeking asylum, it carried no legal consequences, which encouraged repeated entry attempts. After Thursday, those who cross illegally face the possibility of being barred from entering the country for up to five years, as well as possible criminal charges.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz tweeted Friday that the agency had apprehended 67,759 people in the past week. That averages out to 9,679 a day, nearly double March’s daily average of 5,200.
The number is slightly below the 11,000 figure authorities set as a maximum of what they expected after the end of Title 42, but it was not clear when the numbers peaked in the hours before Title 42 expired. Thursday night.
[Con información de César Contreras de la VOA desde El Paso, Texas, y The Associated Press]
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