The United States on Friday introduced tough migration rules after a pandemic-related measure that allowed it to lockdown its territory expired, leaving thousands of migrants at the border feeling insecure and sparking fears. Sharp criticism from NGOs.
• Also read: Honduran teenager dies at US migrant center
• Also read: US warns migrants its border is ‘not wide open’
• Also read: El Paso is preparing for the worst
“Title 42,” which allowed visa-free migrants to be immediately turned back in the name of the public health emergency, ended at 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday and was replaced by a new system, including restrictions on the right to asylum.
The change, shrouded in rumor and misunderstanding among many migrants, has authorities fearing a “chaotic” influx from Mexico. The issue is politically sensitive and Republicans had urged Democratic President Joe Biden to keep “Title 42” and denounced a possible “invasion.”
Authorities insist the southern border is “not open”.
Hundreds of people waited overnight between Ciudad Juárez in Mexico and El Paso in the USA.
Agustin Sortomi told AFP he tried to report to US authorities with his wife and two children but was turned away.
“I don’t know what to do,” said the Honduran. “We have not achieved that dream, only God knows when we will achieve it.”
In Brownsville, a Texas border town, AFP saw dozens of police vehicles deployed on the American side of the bridge that connects the city to Matamoros on the Mexican side.
According to US media, more than 10,000 visa-free migrants have been crossing the border every day for the past few days. Tens of thousands more are waiting.
Mexico, in turn, reported on Friday that it had seen a drop in the number of people wanting to travel to the United States.
Migrants who have already arrived fear the promised tightening of further rules, especially in connection with the granting of asylum.
People “who have no reason to stay, we will very quickly remove them with what we have now, our traditional immigration control powers,” Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN on Friday.
“I’ve been repeating for months that the situation will be complicated,” he added.
Joe Biden himself recently claimed the situation will be “chaotic for a while”.
Authorities prepared by mobilizing thousands of agents and soldiers.
On the side of the conservative opposition, we denounce a “border opening” by the Biden government.
In Florida, a federal judge heard the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ complaint and ordered border police to stop allowing asylum seekers into the United States while their files were reviewed, a process that sometimes takes several years .
And in Texas, 13 Republican-led states jointly filed a lawsuit alleging such permits were “unlawful.”
This system “creates incentives for more illegal migrants to come to the southwestern border,” they argue.
After the expiry of “Title 42”, new asylum restrictions came into force immediately on Friday.
Before reporting to the border, asylum seekers, with the exception of unaccompanied minors, must now have received an appointment via a telephone request to centralize inquiries, “CBP One”, or have been denied asylum in one of the countries they are transiting.
Otherwise, their application will be considered unlawful and they will face an accelerated deportation procedure that will ban them from entering American soil for five years.
Rules are heavily criticized by several NGOs.
“Not long ago, Biden pledged to uphold America’s commitment to asylum seekers. He did exactly the opposite,” condemned Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, during a press conference.
Faced with changes in migration systems, rumors spread by smugglers and a complex online process, migrants massing in northern Mexico are faced with a conundrum compounded by common errors in the application.
There also seemed to be some confusion among border guards. “We don’t know,” replies one of them in El Paso when asked what will happen to the migrants who could happen.
In Florida, according to authorities, a 17-year-old Honduran teenager who crossed the border from the United States without his family died at an American care center for unaccompanied minors where he was housed on May 5. American.