Administration wants court to end asylum limits
EL PASO, TEXAS » Tensions remained high at the Mexican border Tuesday amid uncertainty over the future of restrictions on asylumseekers, with the Biden administration asking the Supreme Court not to lift the limits before Christmas.
The U.S. government made its plea in a filing a day after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order to keep the pandemicera limits on migrants in place. Before Roberts issued that order, the restrictions had been slated to expire today.
The federal government acknowledged that ending the restrictions will likely lead to “disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings.” But the government asked the court to reject a lastminute effort by a group of conservative-leaning states to maintain a measure that allows officials to expel many but not all asylum-seekers.
Migrants have been denied rights to seek asylum guaranteed by U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19 under a public-health rule called Title 42.
With the decision on what comes next going down to the wire, pressure is building in communities along both sides of the border.
In El Paso, Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser warned that shelters across the border in Ciudad Juárez were packed to capacity with an estimated 20,000 migrants who are prepared to cross into the U.S.
The city rushed to expand its ability to accommodate more migrants by converting large buildings into shelters, as the Red Cross brings in 10,000 cots. Local officials also hope to relieve pressure on area shelters by chartering buses to other large cities in Texas or nearby states, bringing migrants a step closer to relatives and sponsors in coordination with nonprofit groups.
“We will continue to be prepared for whatever is coming through,” Leeser said.
Texas National Guard members, deployed by the
state to El Paso this week, used razor wire on Tuesday to cordon off a gap in the border fence along a bank of the Rio Grande that became a popular crossing point in recent days for migrants who waded through
shallow waters to approach immigration officials. They used a loudspeaker to announce in Spanish that it’s illegal to cross there.
Texas said it was sending 400 National Guard personnel to the border city after local officials declared a state of emergency. Leeser said the declaration was aimed largely at protecting vulnerable migrants, while the deployment included forces used to “repel and turn-back illegal immigrants,” according to a Texas National Guard statement.
Immigration advocates have said that the Title 42 restrictions, imposed under provisions of a 1944 health law, go against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution — and that the pretext is outdated as coronavirus treatments improve. They sued to end the use of Title 42; a federal judge in November sided with them and set the Dec. 21 deadline.