Title 42 migrant surge is already here: More than 1000 people are arriving in Yuma, Arizona each day
The line next to the border wall is 100 long before sunrise on Thursday.
The arrivals – from Colombia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Mauritania, Ecuador, Brazil, China, but especially from Peru on Thursday morning – wait patiently for their turn to be processed and boarded on a Customs and Border Protection bus.
By the time each load moves on, a few dozen more migrants will have made their way across a channel and across the Colorado River that marks the border with Mexico.
Within an hour, more than 300 people are lined up. This is what the day before the end of Title 42 looks like in Yuma, Arizona.
The city is already overloaded. With no beds left, officials say they started releasing migrants onto the streets two days ago, with dates for the hearing in 2026 or 2027.
Hundreds of people crossed into US soil from Mexico around Yuma, Arizona, hours before Title 42 was due to expire on Thursday morning. Similar scenes were repeated elsewhere
Sandra, 32, and Bruno, 32, from Perus said they were simply relieved to arrive on US soil, holding their three-year-old daughter Sophia
By the end of the day, the number of arrivals is expected to be well above 1000.
Sandra, 32, and Bruno, 32, said they were simply relieved to arrive on American soil, holding their three-year-old daughter Sophia in their arms.
“She has a condition, autism,” Sandra said. “There’s just no proper care for her in Peru.”
They closed their travel agency and used their savings to make the two-day trip, fly to Mexico, and then head to the crossing.
More than three-quarters of the line comes from Peru. People tell the same story: months of political unrest have led to daily protests and frequent police crackdowns, often involving deadly violence.
Many flew to Mexicali before being led to the border wall and told to find a hole.
They arrive in streams of five, seven, a dozen at a time. They come in thick coats as protection against the nighttime cold.
When they reach the head of the line, they are handed small, clear plastic bags. Documents and small children’s toys are pushed in.
At least 300 people lined the border wall outside Yuma on Thursday morning. Behind the cordon, these arrivals begin to process with border guards
Before 5 a.m. there were already about 100 people in line. As buses drove off with loads of about 40 people, dozens of people took their places. The number in line grew to 300 before 7am
To reach American soil, migrants had to cross the Colorado River and climb up a bank
Everything else is tagged and stored for later retrieval, though one charity volunteer explained that hardly anyone goes back to collect past life souvenirs.
A group of three Chinese clung to the back of the line and joined another handful already in line.
They remind that not everyone is affected by Title 42. Although it used to deport 2.8 million migrants, it only applied to nationalities Mexico was willing to accept: initially El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and later Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Anyway, Yuma is full.
County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said processing capacity was maxed out. The street release began Tuesday, he said, with buses taking people to Phoenix.
Instead of evading the Border Patrol, the new arrivals made their way to a collection point where they can be registered to submit their asylum application before being released for a future court hearing
Arrivals came from China, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. But the vast majority said they were fleeing unrest in Peru
“They’ve been given a piece of paper saying they’ve been processed and there’s a lawsuit,” he said. “But most of the court dates that are handed out are 2026 and 2027.”
Similar scenes play out up and down the border. In all, officials say they have detained as many as 10,000 people a day.
Title 42 was activated by the Trump administration to contain the spread of COVID-19. It is a public health measure that allows border authorities to immediately deport arrivals before they can even apply for asylum.
But now that the pandemic is over, this Thursday ends at midnight eastern time.
The Biden administration has urgently implemented new restrictions, effectively reinstating Trump’s “transit ban,” which allows for the deportation of new arrivals who have not sought asylum in the countries they traveled through.
Migrants can legally report to the border if they have used a mobile app, CBP One, to pre-register.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas explained on Thursday that the end of Title 42 meant migrants would now be processed under Title 8
But as a result, the Biden administration is still struggling to get the message out that the gates to the US are not being thrown open.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas explained on Thursday that the end of Title 42 meant that migrants would now be treated under Title 8.
“Here’s what that means,” he said. “If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be deemed ineligible for asylum and there will be more severe consequences for illegal entry, including a minimum five-year ban on return and possible criminal prosecution.”
Don’t listen to the people who offer you a path to the promised land, he added.
“Know this: Smugglers only care about profit, not people,” he said.