As the formal end of the health emergency order known as Title 42 approaches, thousands of migrants seeking asylum are gathering at the US border. In an effort to prevent a surge of migrants, the Biden administration is taking steps to manage the situation.
Pandemic-era rules that have allowed US border guards to summarily expel hundreds of thousands of would-be asylum-seekers expired Friday, setting up an uncertain future for migrants and inflaming America’s always-churning immigration debate.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to try to cross into the United States over the coming days, hoping to escape the poverty and criminal gangs that wrack their countries.
But to avoid a surge, President Joe Biden’s administration has put rules that raise the bar for anyone claiming refuge.
“Our borders are not open,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said hours before the United States implements a strict new immigration policy.
For more than three years, the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) frontier with Mexico has been regulated by Title 42, a health provision to keep COVID-19 infections at bay by refusing people entry.
But with the formal ending of the health emergency, that rule expired at midnight East Coast time (0400 GMT).
Asylum claims are now permitted again but must, in most cases, be lodged before arriving at the border—on pain of rapid expulsion.
Asylum-seekers are required to book interviews via a smartphone app—though users report it needs to be fixed and presents a hurdle for those without working phones or Wi-Fi.
The Biden administration is trying to walk a tightrope between the humanitarian principles of his Democratic Party and avoiding the looped footage of hundreds of people pouring over the border.
Biden’s Republican Party opponents have seized on what they say is an “invasion.”
In El Paso, hundreds of people who passed into the country through a legitimate border gate on Thursday had been processed and allowed to lodge their initial asylum claim.
And there was apparent confusion among rank-and-file border patrol officers about what will happen in the coming hours and days.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP.
