The announcement of the end of Title 42 revolutionized Mexico’s immigration authorities. On May 11, the United States ends the Covid-19 public health emergency, the controversial measure that allowed for the immediate expulsion of migrants who crossed the border without permission. For three years, Mexico had become the waiting room for those turned away by its neighbor to the north. Now, with Title 42 going extinct, the doors of the United States will not open, but Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard has acknowledged that a sharp increase in transit is expected from migrants desperate to get closer to the US side.
The impact of the announcement is sweeping the country like a south-to-north current. In Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, fresh fighting has erupted in recent days between migrants fighting to speed up immigration procedures that will allow them to leave Chiapas and continue their journey. In Mexico City, one of the recurring stops, some shelters are emptying as migrants have rushed to the border. “The desperation to arrive has led those who had a procedure or were waiting for their asylum application to abandon it because they wanted to arrive as soon as possible,” explains Gabriela Hernández, manager of the Tochán shelter. According to estimates by the US authorities, around 12,000 people are already waiting in Ciudad Juárez to get to El Paso next Thursday, where Mayor Óscar Leeser has declared a state of emergency. Leese indicates another 3,000 could join from a new caravan.
“We’re seeing a very important flow in the last few days, based on a deception, which is: They’re telling the Venezuelan, Central American people, ‘hurry up to get to the United States by crossing Mexico, because on May 11. They will remove titles on May 42,” Ebrard said at a news conference this Friday. The foreign minister has insisted that the free entry message is false because the country has different legal provisions.
A Border Patrol officer searches a Honduran man caught crossing the border in New Mexico on April 26. PAUL RATJE (Portal)
Title 42 is an old policy revived by Donald Trump to curb illegal migration under the pretext of the health crisis during the pandemic. His disappearance was a matter of time. It has operated in connection with Title 8 for the past three years. For example, in December last year, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made 251,487 arrests, 50,000 of whom were sent to Mexico under Title 42, but the other 202,000 were deported to their countries of origin under Title 8. This measure has been in place since 1995 and includes an administrative sanction: the alien may not re-enter the United States for five years, not even for tourism or family reunification purposes. That’s what the United States will continue to use.
“There is misinformation among the migrant population who believe that completing Title 42 will open the doors for them to enter the United States and begin the asylum application process, but it is the opposite. After May 11, anyone trying to enter illegally will be identified under Title 8,” explains Inés Barrios, Academic Coordinator of the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
As an example of US strategy, the researcher cites the example of the 1,500 troops sent to the border by the Joe Biden administration, who join the 3,500 already patrolling the border to stem the arrival of thousands of migrants. “In light of this changed situation, we see a militarization by the United States,” explains this migration doctor, “and we do not see any clear measures on the part of Mexico to respond to the reception of these migrants.”
Military vehicles parked along the border wall in Brownsville, Texas on May 3, 2023. MICHAEL GONZALEZ (Getty Images via AFP)
This is a delicate moment for a paradigm shift in immigration policy. Mexico’s National Institute for Migration (Inami) is facing a complex crisis following the fire at one of its centers in Ciudad Juárez that killed 41 migrants and for which Inami leader Francisco Garduño, along with a dozen federal officials, have been charged situation confronted. . With an institution between the ropes, Mexico must adjust to the migratory pressures that exist between its borders and the forays of the Joe Biden administration, where migration has become a critical issue for Democrats.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government has agreed to continue receiving Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who, instead of being deported to their countries, are being sent back to Mexico. With one change: Previously, Title 42 allowed migrants many attempts to cross the border because there were no consequences if they were deported to Mexico, but now when the United States deports migrants of these nationalities to Mexico under Title 8, the administrative sanction hinders them they try to return to cross legally in five years. That leaves two possibilities: “that the processes of irregular and illegal routes increase, that migrants are forced to hire a human trafficker, which increases vulnerability,” says Inés Barrios, or the long wait in a converted country in a pressure cooker. which set a historic record with more than 120,000 asylum applications in 2022.
The sun never sets in Ciudad Juárez. Someone has spread the rumor that gate 36 of the wall separating Mexico from El Paso in the US is open. Hundreds of migrants embark on a nearly two-hour walk that separates this gate from the city center. In the groups there are pregnant women, children and prams. Most have no water or anything to protect themselves from the sun, but the hope of crossing is stronger. It’s the end of March and there is no gap on the other side, so the migrants have to turn back and keep waiting, sleeping in shelters, asking for money, washing car windows. This is how thousands of people in Mexico are surviving, reeling from misinformation and uncertainty while trying to get an appointment on the CBP One application that US authorities have provided to seek asylum in the country. In this vulnerable context, where even a WhatsApp makes for a caravan, the ending of Title 42 turns everything upside down.
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