After an appeals court ruling on Friday, restrictions that have stopped hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum in the United States in recent years remained on course to expire in a matter of days, as thousands more people crammed shelters on Mexico’s border with the United States.
The decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals indicates that Title 42 restrictions are still scheduled to be eliminated on Wednesday, barring further appeals.
A coalition of 19 Republican-leaning states advocated for the continuation of the asylum limitations imposed by former President Donald Trump at the outbreak’s onset. Since March 2020, 2.5 million migrants have been denied refuge under US and international law on the grounds of limiting the spread of COVID-19. Due to the state of public health in Mexico, a number of migrants have been forced to wait.
Advocates for immigrants contended that the United States was abandoning its longstanding history and pledges to provide sanctuary to those fleeing persecution around the world, and they filed a lawsuit to repeal Title 42. They have also suggested that Trump’s limits were a pretext for restricting immigration, and vaccines and other therapies render this argument obsolete.
Thursday, December 15, 2022, migrants walk by their tents in the Senda de Vida 2 shelter in Reynosa, Mexico.
AP
A judge concurred with them last month and set the deadline for the federal government to halt the practice as December 21. Conservative states attempting to preserve Title 42 had urged for intervention in this case. However, a three-judge bench dismissed their efforts on Friday night, stating that the states had waited too long. The Attorney General of Louisiana expressed unhappiness with the judgment and stated that an appeal would be filed with the Supreme Court.
El Paso, Texas, and other border cities face a daily flood of migrants that the Biden administration anticipates would increase if asylum rules are eased. This week, Enrique Lucero, the city’s director of migrant affairs, stated that Tijuana, the largest border city in Mexico, has an estimated 5,000 individuals in over 30 shelters.
Near McAllen, Texas, in Reynosa, Mexico, almost 300 migrants, mostly families, slept on bunk beds and the floor at the Casa del Migrante.
Rose, a 32-year-old Haitian, and her 1-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son have resided in the shelter for three weeks. Rose, who did not offer her last name for fear that doing so would compromise her safety and asylum-seeking efforts, stated that she learnt about potential US policy changes throughout her travel. She stated that she was content to wait a little longer in Mexico for the relaxation of limitations that were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic and have become a pillar of US border enforcement.
A Haitian migrant receives a haircut from another migrant on Thursday, December 15, 2022, inside the Senda de Vida 2 shelter in Reynosa, Mexico.
AP
“We’re terrified because Haitians are being deported,” said Rose, who fears that if she makes any mistakes while trying to bring her family to the United States, she would be sent back to Haiti.
About 3,000 migrants reside in tents set on concrete slabs and gravel inside Senda de Vida 2, a Reynosa refuge created by an evangelical Christian pastor after his original shelter reached capacity. Even in mid-December, flies swarm everywhere as the sun beats down with intense heat.
Such shelters provide at least some protection from the gangs that control transit via the Rio Grande and prey on travelers for those fleeing violence in Haiti, Venezuela, and other countries.
Approximately 100 migrants who evaded asylum requirements rested on floor mats in a large Catholic Charities-operated hall in McAllen on Thursday, awaiting transportation to family and friends throughout the United States.
Nearly three thousand individuals crowd into the large compound of tents pitched on cement or gravel along the Rio Grande, within feet from the U.S. border.
AP
Gloria, a 22-year-old Honduran woman who is eight months pregnant with her first child, held a sign that read, “Please assist me. I am not fluent in English.” Additionally, Gloria did not want her last name used out of concern for her safety. She was concerned about navigating the airport on her own and reaching Florida, where she had a family connection.
Co-founder of an all-volunteer migrant welcoming association in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Matamoros, Mexico, Andrea Rudnik was concerned about having sufficient winter clothes for migrants from warmer regions.
“We do not have enough materials,” she stated on Friday, stressing that Team Brownsville had received less donations.
Title 42, which is part of a 1944 public health law, applies to all nationalities, but it has been unevenly applied to individuals whom Mexico agrees to accept back, including Guatemalans, Hondurans, El Salvadorans, and, most recently, Venezuelans. In November, fewer unaccompanied adults crossed the border illegally, according to a Justice Department court filing made public on Friday, although no explanation was provided. It also failed to account for families with small children and children traveling alone.
Thursday, December 15, 2022, migrant women wash clothes inside the Casa del Migrante shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, which is run by Catholic nuns.
AP
According to the report, Border Patrol agents apprehended 143,903 single adults along the Mexican border in November, down 9 percent from 158,639 in October and the lowest number since August. Nicaraguans have surpassed Cubans as the second-largest nationality at the border among single adults, after Mexicans.
As a result of Mexico’s decision on October 12 to accept Venezuelan migrants who are expelled from the United States, Border Patrol agents apprehended 3,513 Venezuelan adults traveling alone in November, a decrease of 14,697 from the previous month.
In November, 43,504 Mexican adults were stopped, down from 56,010 in October, more than any other country. The number of Nicaraguan adults stopped increased from 16,497 to 27,369. 24 690 Cuban adults were stopped, an increase from 20 740.
In related news, a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, ruled Thursday that the Biden administration improperly reversed a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings. The verdict had little immediate effect, but it could be a setback for the White House in the long run.
White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan stated that immigration laws will continue to be enforced at the border and that the Biden administration will try to improve legal channels for migrants while discouraging “disorganized and hazardous travel.”
“To be clear, the removal of the Title 42 public health order does not mean that the border is open,” he stated. “Anyone who implies differently is working for smugglers who propagate false information to exploit vulnerable people for profit.”
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