On Sunday evening, after having been bussed out of the US and back into Mexico with a police escort, hundreds of migrants were seen entering illegally into the United States from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Long queues of migrants waiting to cross the border were seen in video taken by a reporter on the banks of the Rio Grande on the El Paso side of the border.
After Customs and Border Protection transported hundreds of people back over the border into Mexico by bus while providing a police escort, some may have previously been in the US earlier in the weekend.
Many of them had to cross the Rio Grande river once again after being released back into Ciudad Juárez, which is located just south of El Paso and the southern border.
The images demonstrate the reasons why the US is still dealing with its biggest border crisis in history, with over 230,000 people apprehended in October, the most recent month for which data is available.
Towns and communities along the border are straining under the weight of thousands of arrivals who need food, shelter, and other basic necessities addressed. It is possible that many more have crossed the border unhindered.
With so many people lined up to be processed, the US Border Patrol sometimes seemed overburdened.
El Paso municipal officials expressed their concerns about a potential spike in border crossings last week.
According to Fox News, over 2,600 migrants entered the US illegally in the day between Friday and Saturday.
This week, a caravan of up to 1,500 Central and South American migrants landed in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juárez is located.
To stop them from traveling the 360 kilometers to the border, state officials in Mexico tried to obstruct their route at Jiménez.
The migrant caravan comprised men and women, some of whom were pregnant, as well as teenagers, kids, and infants. Some of the migrants came in vehicles and cargo trucks, while others walked.
According to a local website, El Paso Matters, the migrants come from a wide range of Latin American nations, including Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and certain southern states of Mexico.
The caravan has arrived only weeks before Title 42, a public health statute in the United States that has mostly prohibited asylum at the southern border and permitted the quick expulsion of migrants, is set to be abolished on December 21. President Biden had earlier tried to scrap the program in May.
At the request of the Biden administration, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan stopped the program in November but postponed the decision for five weeks, until December 21.
In order to stop the flow of immigration, U.S. authorities have proposed a variety of harsh measures, including prosecuting more adults who attempt to elude Border Patrol and removing those who have not previously asked for lawful entrance or protection in another country, according to Axios.
The Biden administration said last week that it will challenge a federal court decision that would lift the limits on asylum under Title 42, although it is unclear whether the deadline of the 21st would be extended.
On both sides of the border, local governments and charitable organizations are preparing for what is sure to be a sizable inflow of migrants.
After shelter capacity was filled in November, El Paso discharged around 2,000 migrants into the streets.
According to CBS4, this past weekend alone saw the release of almost 800 migrants into El Paso from federal detention.
On Saturday, 286 migrants were freed, and on Sunday, 498 more.
The “provisional release” is a “safe and humanitarian release of migrants, who are put into removal proceedings and are awaiting the following stages in their immigration procedure,” according to officials.
The immigrants were dealt with and are now free to stay in the country as they wait for their immigration hearings.
El Paso’s deputy city manager, Mario D’Agostino, informed city officials last week that their community couldn’t be ready for the conclusion of Title 42 on December 21.
It’s in poor condition. D’Agostino, who is in charge of the city’s reaction to the migrant issue, said, “I mean, we may see up to thousands a day traveling through our village.”
When Title 42, the CDC health limitation from the Covid period that permits instant deportation, expires in ten days, the terrible scenario that might result, according to D’Agostino, became more apparent after speaking with FEMA this week.
There are no adequate shelters for that; nobody could keep up with it. According to CBS 4, D’Agostino cautioned that it would need an all-out effort, most of which would fall on the federal government to the extent that they could assist in decompressing our region.
El Paso authorities are now impatiently awaiting the federal cash they have asked for to be ready for the end of the pandemic-era program.
If they continue with street releases and are unable to locate housing, we will have to step in. “That extra funds will be for when Title 42 is removed.” But we have been requesting the cash, and we still do,” D’Agostino added.
The administration has also said that a new rule to replace Title 42 is being developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC, however, said in April that there was no longer a valid public health justification for restricting asylum.
According to the CDC, “a suspension of the authority to introduce such covered noncitizens is no longer essential to safeguard U.S. citizens” based on “the public health landscape, the present state of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the processes in place for the processing of covered noncitizens.”
When the COVID-19 epidemic first broke out, the limitations were placed in place by previous President Donald Trump.
The procedure, which has been used to kick out immigrants more than 2.4 million times, was made legal under Title 42 of a larger public health statute passed in 1944.
Given the influx of migrants crossing the border from the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador via Mexico, the Biden Administration has used the policy to deport even more migrants than the previous administration.
Since taking office as president in January 2021, Biden has not been to the border.
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