‘What now?’: Scenes from the US-Mexico border

Attention turned again this week to the US-Mexico border, as a pandemic-era policy in the United States that allowed authorities to quickly deport most asylum seekers under the pretext of public health came to an end.

Large numbers of migrants and refugees rushed to the border in hopes of seeking protection in the US before Title 42 expires late Thursday as new restrictions on asylum also came into effect.

At the same time, President Joe Biden’s administration had sent additional troops and other resources as authorities braced for an influx of arrivals.

Here are some of the stories that have marked the past few days along the 3,140 km (1,950 mi) international border.

‘It is over’

Aylin Guevara, 45, hurried as she walked through the burning Ciudad Juarez desert to the border.

She was accompanied by her two children aged 16 and 5 and her husband. The family fled their coastal town in Colombia after receiving death threats and hoped to seek refuge in the US.

After spending the previous night in a hotel, they were eager to get to the border — “to come in and go with the help of God and baby Jesus,” Guevara said.

But when they arrived just hours before the end of Title 42, a U.S. Immigration officer said they couldn’t pass. “No more, it’s over,” he said in a firm voice, directing them to the bridges 10 miles (16 km) to their left or right.

‘Find us with this now’

Maria Jose Duran, a 24-year-old student from Venezuela, was on the verge of tears as she sat on a riverbank in Matamoros, Mexico.

Mexican immigration officials tried to move people into a makeshift camp and away from where they could wade across the Rio Grande.

Duran said she dropped out of college when her parents could no longer afford it and left for the US with a group of friends and relatives. They crossed the treacherous Darien Gap that separates Colombia and Panama and then half a dozen more countries before reaching the US border.

“I don’t know what to think after coming from such a rough journey to be stuck with this now,” she said, pointing across the street where at least a dozen Texas State Troopers with rifles were standing behind concertina- wire stood.

On the Mexican side, members of the Texas National Guard could be seen reinforcing another piece of wire to keep out migrants. Duran was later seen walking along the embankment with other migrants who had crossed the Rio Grande and passed through the barbed wire.

“Will it be better or worse for us?”

Hundreds of would-be immigrants lined up next to the border wall in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, still crossing Thursday and being taken in by the US Border Guard in the hours before the Title 42 restrictions were lifted. The numbers were significantly lower than in recent days.

Ecuadorian Washington Javier Vaca and his wife, Paulina Congo, along with their two children, ages 14 and 7, were unaware of the rule change.

“And now will it be better or worse for us?” Congo asked. “We applied for asylum in Mexico and after four months they refused us.”

A Salvadoran man who gave his name as David moved away from the border and back to Ciudad Juarez for fear of being deported.

‘What now?’

Authorities in the remote desert community of Yuma, Arizona, expressed alarm after the average daily number of arrivals rose from 300 to 1,000 this week.

Hundreds who entered the Yuma area by crossing the Colorado River surrendered early Thursday to border agents, who later transferred adults and children to buses.

Mayor Doug Nicholls asked the federal government to declare a national disaster so that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resources and National Guard troops can be rushed to his and other small border communities.

Most migrants and asylum seekers are transported to reception centers run by non-profit organizations further away from the border, but border officials will release them into communities if there is not enough transport available.

Nicholls said officials have already told him they plan to release 141 people in Yuma County by Friday. “The question keeps coming back: ‘What now?’ I’ve been asking that question for two years with no answers,” Nicholls said. “We’re in a situation we’ve never been in before.”

‘Maybe it’s not enough’

Leaders of nonprofits helping asylum seekers away from the border in Arizona have said they are as prepared as possible for the new scenario.

“We will put our best foot forward and address this with all available resources,” said Teresa Cavendish, executive director of Tucson’s Casa Alitas shelter, the state’s largest. “But maybe it’s not enough.”

Catholic Community Services in Southern Arizona runs Casa Alitas’ new 300-bed facility for men, as well as four other locations that also temporarily house women, families and vulnerable people for a combined capacity of more than 1,000 beds.

David Miliband, chairman of the International Rescue Committee, who visited the organization’s Welcome Center in Phoenix this week, expressed confidence in the agency’s ability to handle any surge in asylum seekers there. The 340-bed shelter was less than half its capacity.

“The challenge can be met as long as it is done in an organized and humane way,” Miliband said.

Beth Strano, engagement manager for the center in a quiet neighborhood in southern Phoenix, said, “We helped 50,000 people last year and 38,000 people the year before that without any negative impact on our customers or community.”

‘It was all a lie’

Smugglers helped Guatemalan Sheidi Mazariegos and her four-year-old son get to Matamoros, Mexico, where she and the child crossed the Rio Grande on a raft.

But Border Patrol agents took the pair into custody near Brownville, Texas, a week ago. On Thursday, the 26-year-old and her son arrived back in Guatemala on one of two flights carrying a total of 387 migrants.

“I heard on the news that there was an opportunity to enter,” said Mazariegos. “I heard it on the radio, but it was all a lie.”

‘It is very difficult’

On a stretch of border wall in Tijuana, some of those hoping to cross asked passersby for blankets, food and water as the sun set over a steep hill.

Gerson Aguilera, 41, arrived in Tijuana around 4 p.m. with his three children and wife to make the crossing and seek asylum. From Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Aguilera said he and his family fled after organized criminals began demanding that he pay twice as much extortion money as he was already paying at 2,000 Honduran lempira (about $81) a week.

“It’s very hard. For a fee they will kill you,” Aguilera said with tears in his eyes.

The owner of a welding workshop, Aguilera, said he had already left his home once in 2020 due to threats, but returned when things calmed down. That was no longer an option.

“We ask God to help us,” Aguilar said.