Title 42 stay ‘a joke’
Frustration among migrants at US-Mexico border as court keeps Covid curbs, write Jose Luis Gonzalez and Ted Hesson
When Vladimir Castellanos learned that Covid-19 restrictions blocking him and other migrants from claiming asylum at the US border with Mexico may not be terminated this week, he said he felt deceived.
Mr Castellanos and his brother are Venezuelans, and they were among dozens of migrants gathered on both sides of the Rio Grande on Monday night in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, with some lighting small fires to keep warm as temperatures dropped towards freezing.
They had traveled there in anticipation that the Covid-19 restrictions, known as Title 42, would be lifted yesterday as ordered by a US court. Title 42 allows US authorities to rapidly expel migrants to Mexico and other countries without a chance to seek US asylum.
But in a last-minute move, the US Supreme Court on Monday allowed Title 42 to remain in place temporarily while a legal challenge by Republican state attorneys general seeking to extend the measures is decided.
President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday asked the court to let the asylum restrictions end. But citing the holiday season and logistical concerns prompted by Monday’s order, it asked the court to leave the policy in place until after Dec 27.
“I view it as a joke, to give us hope and then, like a child, trick us and tell us that they are going to postpone,” Mr Castellanos said, adding that it was unfair that migrants from other countries could enter the United States while Venezuelans were barred.
Under Title 42, the United States typically can only expel migrants from
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela to Mexico. Mexico won’t accept Nicaraguans, for example, or migrants from certain South American countries, who generally have been allowed into the United States to pursue their immigration cases.
Since Mr Biden took office in January 2021, about half of the record 4 million migrants encountered at the US-Mexico border have been expelled under Title 42 while the other half have been allowed into the country.
The rise in people crossing the border has overwhelmed some border communities. The city of El Paso, Texas, declared a state of emergency over the weekend as hundreds of migrants were on the streets.
The migrants interviewed by Reuters were a handful of the estimated tens of thousands waiting on the Mexican
side of the border for a chance to cross.
Early on Tuesday, dozens of Texas National Guard troops in camouflage uniform and helmets fanned out at the border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso in armoured cars. The troops, part of a larger deployment of 400 personnel, unspooled long lengths of concertina wire to create a barrier alongside the river.
Title 42 was originally issued in March 2020 under Republican former President Donald Trump at the beginning of the pandemic.
Some Venezuelans on the Mexican side of the border were still holding out hope for a change.
“I can’t give up so easily,” said 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant Alexis Farfan, who has been staying at a shelter in Tijuana since he was expelled from the US earlier this month.