BORDER SECURITYTitle 42 Ends as Migrants Lined Up and Border Cities Braced for the Unknown
Long lines formed again next to the border wall in El Paso — a scene repeated in other parts of the southern border — as migrants anticipated the end of a policy that has allowed immigration agents to quickly expel them.
As the clock ticked down to the end of a policy used to expel migrants from the U.S. nearly 3 million times over the past three years [the policy, known as Title 42, expired Midnight Thursday], the lines formed again on a patch of American soil between the Rio Grande and the border wall.
Hundreds of migrants — men, women and children — stood in ragged lines, waiting near a gate in the wall for their turn to pass through. They were watched by Border Patrol agents and National Guard members in fatigues. For the moment, no one moved.
A group of four Venezuelan men with a boy and a Colombian couple with their 2-year-old son waded across the shallow river and were turned back by National Guard. The migrants said the soldiers told them the border was closed and they should go to another area 5 miles east where agents may let them pass.
The public health emergency order known as Title 42 — which has been largely used as an immigration enforcement policy to quickly expel migrants, including asylum-seekers, trying to enter the U.S.— ended late Thursday night.
In preparation, federal, state and border officials across the roughly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border have implemented a series of policies to prepare for what they fear will be a chaotic crisis as thousands of migrants who have been forced to wait in Mexican border cities make a crucial decision: Follow the Biden administration’s new rules and make an appointment to request asylum, or try their luck crossing the border en masse.
In South Texas, video footage from journalists on Wednesday showed hundreds of immigrants gathering on the banks of the Rio Grande near Brownsville. In neighboring Hidalgo County, County Judge Richard Cortez issued a seven-day disaster declaration on Thursday.
“I have received credible information from officials with Customs and Border Protection that large groups of migrants are probing our international border in search of crossing points,” he said. “I have decided to declare this emergency as a first step in securing all available state and federal resources to ensure the health and safety of our residents.”
El Paso, Laredo and Brownsville had previously declared states of emergency. On Wednesday, El Paso city officials converted two vacant middle schools into migrant shelters using federal money.
