MATAMOROS, Mexico (AP) — Migrants stormed across the Mexican border on Thursday hoping to enter the U.S. in the final hours before pandemic-related asylum restrictions are lifted — a change many feared would make it more difficult for them to stay could.
As the midnight deadline approaches, migrants in Mexico strip off their clothes before descending a steep bank into the Rio Grande with plastic bags full of clothes. A man held a baby upside down in an open suitcase.
On the US side of the river, migrants donned dry clothes and made their way through an accordion wire. Many immediately turned themselves in to authorities and hoped to be freed while pursuing their cases in crowded immigration courts that take years.
President Joe Biden’s administration has unveiled tough new measures to replace the restrictions known as Title 42. Since March 2020, the old rules have allowed border officials to quickly send asylum seekers back across the border to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The new guidelines tackle illegal border crossings while creating legal avenues for migrants to apply online, find a sponsor and undergo background checks. If successful, the reforms could fundamentally change the way migrants arrive at the US-Mexico border.
But that’s a big if. President Joe Biden has acknowledged that the border will be chaotic for a while. Immigrant advocacy groups have threatened legal action. And migrants fleeing poverty, gangs and persecution in their homelands are still desperate to reach US soil at any cost.
William Contreras of Venezuela said Title 42 is good for the people of his devastated South American country. He heard that many migrants before him were released in the United States.
“We understand they won’t let anyone in anymore,” said Contreras’ friend Pablo, who declined to give his last name because he planned to cross the border illegally. “That is the reason for our urgency to cross the border today.”
While Title 42 discouraged many from seeking asylum, it had no legal ramifications and encouraged retry attempts. After Thursday, migrants face a five-year travel ban to the United States and possible criminal prosecution.
According to a US official, detention facilities along the border had been stretched well beyond capacity, and border guards were ordered on Wednesday to begin releasing some migrants, with orders to appear at a US immigration agency within 60 days. The officer was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and provided information to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Officers were also told to begin releases in any area where detention facilities were at 125% occupancy or where the average detention time exceeded 60 hours. They were also ordered to begin releases if 7,000 migrants were detained across the border in one day.
According to a second US official, who provided information to the AP on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, border police stopped about 10,000 migrants on Tuesday, one of their busiest days ever.
That’s almost double the daily average of about 5,200 in March, the latest publicly available data, and near the 11,000 that US officials have predicted is the cap of the rise they expect after Title 42.
More than 27,000 people were in US Customs and Border Protection custody, the official said.
On Thursday, about 400 migrants huddled in strong winds that blew up the sand on the banks of the Rio Grande east of El Paso while groups of Texas National Guard soldiers erected concertina wire barriers.
A couple from Colombia approached the line and asked if they could start a fire because a 10-year-old was shivering in the desert cold. Most migrants huddled under thin blankets.
Major Sean Storrud of the Texas National Guard said his troops explained to migrants the consequences of crossing illegally.
“The migrants don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Storrud said.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security announced a rule that would make it extremely difficult for anyone traveling through another country, like Mexico, to qualify for asylum. It also introduced curfews with GPS tracking for families released before the first asylum reviews in the US.
The government considered detaining families until they passed initial asylum tests, but instead opted for family curfews, which apply from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and will begin soon in Baltimore, Chicago, Washington and Newark, New Jersey, according to a US official speaking on April 30 on condition of anonymity as the information was not intended to be released to the public.
Families who do not show up for the screening talks are picked up by the immigration authorities and deported.
At the same time, the government has introduced far-reaching new legal routes into the United States
Up to 30,000 people from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela can enter the country every month if they apply online to a financial sponsor and enter through an airport. Processing centers open in Guatemala, Colombia and elsewhere. Up to 1,000 people can enter Mexico daily via land crossings if they secure an appointment via an online app.
In San Diego, more than 100 migrants, many of them Colombian families, slept under plastic sheeting between two border walls and were guarded by border guards who had nowhere to take them to check-in.
Albino Leon, 51, said the end of Title 42 prompted the family to make the journey.
“It’s now or never with the changes they’re making to the laws,” said Leon, who flew from Colombia to Mexico and cleared a first border wall to reach US soil.
Miguel Meza, director of migrant programs for Catholic Relief Services, which has 26 migrant shelters in Mexico, estimates that there are about 55,000 migrants in border towns across from the United States. More migrants who have been deported back to Mexico from the south and the USA are arriving every day.
Migrants have weighed on some US cities over the past year.
Elías Guerra, 20, arrived in Denver last week after hearing it was a welcoming place to get a free bus ticket to his final destination. After four nights in church accommodation, the city provided a $58 ticket to New York. He left on Wednesday evening.
“It’s comfortable here, it’s safe, there’s food, there’s shelter, there’s toilets,” Guerra said while waiting with other migrants in a parking garage where the city processed newcomers.
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Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Rebecca Santana in Washington; Christopher Sherman in Mexico City; Gerardo Carrillo in Matamoros, Mexico; Maria Verza in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Anita Snow in Phoenix; Nick Riccardi in Denver; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Giovanna Dell’Orto in El Paso; and Elliot Spagat in Tijuana, Mexico contributed.