Confusion, resolve at US-Mexico border as Title 42 formally ends

A controversial United States policy that allowed authorities to reject most asylum seekers at the border with Mexico has officially come to an end as President Joe Biden’s administration prepares for an expected influx of arrivals.

The public health order known as Title 42, which formally expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday (03:59 GMT Friday), had been used more than 2.8 million times to deport asylum seekers since it was first invoked in March 2020. to point.

At the time, then-President Donald Trump argued that Title 42 was necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19, but human rights groups immediately criticized the measure, saying the pandemic was just a pretext to crack down on immigration.

The expiration of the policy coincided with the end of the federal COVID-19 emergency on May 11, and the Biden administration has deployed additional troops and resources to the US-Mexico border ahead of its end.

Washington also this week finalized a new rule that would make most refugees and asylum seekers arriving at the country’s southern border with Mexico ineligible for asylum in the US. The rule takes effect when Title 42 expires.

People wanting to immigrate have crossed the border in the days and hours before the policy was due to end, fearing that the new policy would make it much more difficult to enter the US.

In the Mexican border town of Matamoros, opposite Brownsville, Texas, people arrived steadily on Wednesday, undressing before descending a steep bank with plastic bags full of clothes. They slowly waded into the river, a man with a baby in an open trunk on his head.

On the US side, they put on dry clothes and made their way through concertina wire. Many surrendered to authorities, hoping to be released to remain legal while pursuing their cases in overdue immigration courts, a process that could take years.

At the border wall in San Ysidro, California, across from Tijuana, Mexico, hundreds of people crossed on Wednesday and awaited processing by US authorities. The group consisted of families with young children and people from Colombia, Brazil, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Members of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker charity, handed out silver, reflective blankets to keep people warm at night in freezing temperatures. Some asylum seekers lit campfires.

Angelica, a Colombian indigenous woman who did not want her last name used for fear of reprisals, said she slept on the floor for two nights in hopes of seeking asylum in the US.

She told Al Jazeera that she took several flights from Colombia to Mexico, and when she reached Tijuana, she climbed over the border wall. She said she sought asylum because criminals in Colombia threatened her but did not know what would happen next at the border.

“I’ll have to wait and see what happens,” Angelica said in a WhatsApp message from the border on Thursday. “All I know is that I have a mission and a vision. i hope i can [ask for asylum] soon.”

US defends policy

While rights groups had called for Title 42 to be repealed, they also condemned the Biden administration for increasingly leaning on policies that will also deny refuge to people fleeing desperate circumstances.

Many people seeking asylum on the southern border of the US are fleeing widespread violence, political instability and socioeconomic crises in their homelands in Central and South America, as well as in countries such as China, Turkey, Russia and elsewhere.

Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, said the US policy change is unlikely to deter people from trying to leave the Caribbean country amid widespread gang violence and starvation.

“On Wednesday we were able to go to a government office where people were waiting for their passports, hundreds and hundreds,” said Bo. And they told us that they don’t know what Title 42 is, that they’re just trying to leave the country to feel safe.

“And you can hear that here among the population: they really want to leave and feel safe again.”

However, the Biden administration has defended its policy, stressing this week that its approach to immigration is one of “enforcement, deterrence and diplomacy”.

“At this point, we believe we have a robust plan, a multi-agency plan, to do this in a humane way,” White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in response to questions on Tuesday. about what the US was doing at the border to prepare for the end of Title 42.

Washington has urged prospective immigrants to take “legal avenues” to get to the country, including applying through an app known as CBP One and using new programs that allow a limited number of asylum seekers who meet certain criteria, can enter the US.

“President Biden has led the largest expansion of legal avenues in decades,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing Thursday.

However, Mayorkas said the new asylum rule would have a harsher impact on migrants and refugees crossing irregularly, who could be deported and banned from the US for five years if they do not qualify for protection.

“The transition to Title 8 processing will be swift and immediate,” he said of the new policy, emphasizing that anyone removed “will be subject to at least a five-year ban from re-entering the United States.” and face criminal charges if they try to cross again”.

Mayorkas also announced at a news conference on Wednesday that the Biden administration is launching a “digital advertising campaign in Central and South America to counter the lies of the smugglers” who bring people to the border.

“Smugglers have long been hard at work spreading false information that the border will be open. They lie,” he said Thursday. “For people thinking about making the journey to our southern border, know this: Smugglers only care about profit, not people. Don’t risk your life and your savings to be removed from the United States if and when you get here.

Thousands arrested

The Biden administration has been under political pressure to respond to increased arrivals at the border, as Republican lawmakers have blamed the Democratic president for the influx since he took office in January 2021.

Daily detentions at the US-Mexico border already exceeded 10,000 on Monday and Tuesday, according to US officials, and US border towns are struggling to accommodate new arrivals.

As of Wednesday morning, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had more than 28,000 people in custody, which appeared to be a record, said a US official, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal operations. He also noted that those numbers far exceeded the agency’s stated capacity.

In Texas this week, Republican Governor Greg Abbott — a staunch critic of Biden’s immigration policies — said he would deploy a special border force to deal with “hot spots” along the border pending the end of Title 42.

But on Thursday, Mayorkas blamed any chaos at the border on the failure of leaders in the US Congress to fix “a fundamentally broken immigration system.”

“This is an ongoing challenge that frankly has been plaguing this country for decades because Congress has failed to pass an immigration reform that everyone agrees on and that everyone understands is desperately needed,” said the secretary of state. Homeland Security.

“We work with an immigration system that was last reformed in the 1990s. Migration has changed dramatically since then and our laws need to be updated.”

Oscar Leeser, mayor of El Paso, which is routinely one of the busiest border crossings, said the Texas city was preparing for an influx of arrivals. Several cities along the border, including El Paso, have already issued emergency declarations for their area.

“But we don’t know what will happen the next day. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 10 days,” Leeser said. “We know they’ll keep coming and we’ll keep making sure we help them.”

Hilary Beaumont contributed reporting from San Ysidro, California.