CAMPING OUT FOR NEW LAW
Migrants who have been denied entry to the US are amassing on the Mexican side of the border, preparing for the end of the pandemic-era policy that stopped them from getting in.
Venezuelan asylum-seeker Samuel Guerra told The Post he plans to be among an “avalanche” of immigrants he predicts will enter the US.
He’s currently living in a tent city occupied mostly by Venezuelans and located about a half a football field away from El Paso, Texas — with the only things standing between him and the US being the Rio Grande River and Title 42.
A federal judge on Tuesday ended the Trump-era policy used to kick out over 2.3 million people from the country since its inception in 2020.
The court gave the federal government a five-week deadline — until Dec. 21 — to end it.
“In December, it’s going to be an avalanche of people; a sea of people,” Guerra said.
Without Title 42, the US could see as many as 18,000 people cross the border per day, The Washington Post reports, almost triple current levels of people.
Title 42 was primarily applied to migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but it was expanded to include Venezuelans earlier this year.
Guerra said he is braving freezing temperatures and sleeping on the ground or in a tent just feet away from where he plans to turn himself in to US Border Patrol agents once Title 42 ends.
“They’re afraid one of us is going to freeze to death,” he said. A Mexican shelter offered to him sleep inside, but he said, “I didn’t want to go because I can’t risk leaving here and maybe losing my opportunity.”
Border Patrol has been using Title 42 to expel about 40% of migrants they encounter at the southern border, according to US Customs and Border Protection.
“Once Title 42 goes away, we’re going to be releasing even more people into the United States, which, of course, just encourages more people to come,” Border Patrol union President Brandon Judd said Thursday.
Judd fears that smugglers in Mexico and other Latin America are getting ready.
“Undoubtedly they’re already advertising to those countries, saying, ‘Title 42 is now gone; you’re free to cross,’ ” Judd said.
The Biden administration has yet to announce a plan to handle the crowds at the border — where 6,500-7,000 people arrive each day, according to Judd.
El Paso received the most border-crossers in October, according to Border Patrol, and it is also bracing for the end of Title 42.
“They have already been discussing over the last year, the city and county,” El Paso Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Peter Svarzbein told The Post.
Since August, the city has spent almost $9.5 million dealing with the migrant crisis. The White House has promised to fully reimburse El Paso taxpayers, but so far the administration only coughed up $2.2 million.
El Paso shut down its migrant welcome center and bus program in October. When the federal government asked the city to start up again, El Paso leaders said they needed the money from the government first.
Svarzbein says the Biden administration, not El Paso, needs to come up with a solution: “The federal government needs to look at enacting realistic and comprehensive immigration reform; that is long overdue.”