Hundreds of migrants have crossed the Mexican border to the Texan city of El Paso in recent hours, encouraged by the court ruling that put an end to Title 42 on Tuesday, the ordinance approved by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 to return to Mexico. asylum seekers immediately hiding behind the coronavirus pandemic, according to local media reports.
The court decision caused joy in migrant camps in northern Mexico, where thousands wait to cross into the United States and present their asylum cases.
The magistrate, however, accepted this Wednesday the Government's request to postpone the end of Title 42 for five weeks, until December 21, so that the immigration authorities can prepare the transition.
Venezuelan migrants cross the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juárez on October 13. Christian Chavez / AP
The Department of Homeland Security warned this Wednesday in a statement: "People should not listen to the lies of smugglers who take advantage of vulnerable migrants, putting their lives at risk. The border is closed and we will continue to enforce our immigration laws at the border ".
However, hundreds crossed the Rio Grande to surrender to border agents in the hope of beginning their asylum processes.
Some had just arrived in Ciudad Juárez, but others had been waiting for months in the migrant camps in that Mexican border city, reported the local newspaper El Paso Matters.
"Everyone is turning themselves in, the camp is emptying," David, a Venezuelan migrant who tried to enter the United States to seek asylum but was expelled on October 12, told the aforementioned outlet.
"I'm going to turn myself in today," added the man, whose wife and daughter were waiting for him in Atlanta, Georgia, after he was recently admitted.
[Texas announces military operation to stop "the invasion" at the border and sends its first bus of migrants to Philadelphia]
Thousands of Venezuelans have arrived in South Texas since August, but the flow plummeted after the United States signed an agreement in October with Mexico to allow them to be returned under Title 42, as is the case with other nationalities.
Faced with the massive arrival of migrants, the El Paso authorities have requested more funds from the federal government to accommodate them in public shelters, after ceasing their policy of chartering buses to send them to other Democratic cities such as Washington DC
"We have been in daily contact with Border Patrol and all of our other partners to address the recent influx of migrants. Those discussions include an assessment of possible scenarios that could occur when Title 42 is terminated and coordinated responses to address them accordingly. the same way we would like to be treated and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso," said Mayor Oscar Lesser.
Mexico increases immigration controls
The Mexican authorities have reinforced immigration controls and police patrols on highways in the south of the country to stop the wave of Venezuelan migrants traveling to the United States.
The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has not explained whether the increase in operations is related to the announcement that Title 42 will cease to be in force as of December 21.
But his actions have brought the thousands of migrants waiting in the south of the country to a limit, The Associated Press news agency reported Thursday.
Until a few months ago, Mexican authorities allowed migrants to leave in small groups from the city of Tapachula, in the southern state of Chiapas, to ease the pressure building up among the thousands of people stranded there.
But now they have started breaking up even caravans of less than 100 people.
"It's been two days in a row that the National Guard and immigration authorities are running people out of the park because they believe a caravan is forming," Orley Castillo, a Honduran who has stayed with his family, told the news agency on Wednesday. 15-year-old son to camp in the center of Tapachula for a week.
Some 180 miles to the northwest, thousands of migrants wait in San Pedro Tapanatepec, in the state of Oaxaca, for papers that would allow them to temporarily transit through Mexico.
In October, the government established a center for issuing documents for migrants in this Oaxacan town that became "a pressure cooker," according to its mayor, Humberto Parrazales.