Migrants At US-Mexico Border Face Tight Controls After Title 42 Lapse

By Staff, Agencies

After hours of waiting on the US side of the border, migrants crossed back into Mexico in disappointment as access to asylum was still restricted after the end of Title 42 on Sunday.

Hundreds of migrants who traveled from central America to Mexico’s northern border, hoping for the Texas National Guard to allow them to seek asylum in the United States, were still blocked from doing so after the end of Covid restrictions that blocked asylum requests at the border for the past three years.

Under the order known as Title 42, US authorities could quickly turn back migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum. Since that policy ended on Thursday, Reuters reported several instances in which US authorities told Venezuelan, Cuban, Colombian, and Mexican asylum-seekers that they needed appointments.

US Customs and Border Protection in recent years has grappled with record crossings. But in the wake of Title 42's expiration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said border patrol agents have seen a 50 percent drop in the number of migrants crossing the border.

"It is still early. We are in day three. But we have been planning for this transition for months and months,” Mayorkas told CNN News.

He noted that US Border Patrol agents had about 6,300 encounters with border-crossers on Friday and another 4,200 on Saturday, compared with more than 10,000 shortly before Title 42's expiration.