Countdown to an anticipated greater flood of asylum seekers prompted significant numbers of migrants to breach the U.S.-Mexico border during abnormally cold weather, with Title 42 provisions set to expire next week.
These limits, imposed by previous President Donald Trump, are slated to expire on Wednesday, an event that is expected to increase the number of migrants entering an area that is already struggling to cope.
After crossing the Rio Grande over the weekend, an estimated 1,500 people, including many families with children, raced across the border.
Judge Emmett Sullivan of the federal district court ruled against the policy last month, describing it as “arbitrary and capricious.” And on Thursday, a federal judge halted the Trump administration’s “stay in Mexico” policy, which enabled asylum-seekers to be held in Mexico pending their immigration court appearances.
A massive wave of migrants from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, have crossed the US-Mexico border into El Paso, Texas. The Title 42 policy is anticipated to expire on Wednesday, bringing probable even bigger numbers.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that it disagreed with the Texas court’s decision and that the Biden administration could file an appeal.
The legal tussle comes as officials warn that the number of migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico could approach 14,000 per day on December 21, just days before Christmas, when the pandemic-era expulsion regulation Title 42 expires.
The deputy city manager of El Paso, Texas, Mario D’Agostino, described the amount of border crossers as “unsustainable.”
He told Fox News: “What we’re seeing right now is a total surge.” In the El Paso region, there are already more than 2,500 arrests per day. That equates to over 1,600 releases each day in our community.’
According to officials, border resources are severely strained.
Temperatures dipped to 33 degrees on Friday in El Paso, where Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, border crossers are heading.
Thursday, a federal court halted the Trump administration’s “stay in Mexico” program.
The rise occurs just before the holiday season and coincides with the failure of an effort to grant legal status to 2 million ‘Dreamers’
The crossings occur during an extraordinary cold spell. El Paso’s low temperature was 33 degrees today, with a predicted dip to 26 degrees on Saturday – evoking images of migrants splashing across the Rio Grande to enter the United States, then huddling under blankets to remain warm.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the government has utilized Title 42, which cites the health hazards posed by COVID-19, 2.5 million times to remove migrants.
Even within the congestion at the border, the Washington Post reported on the decline in legal immigration, citing experts who stated that the US is short 1.7 million legal immigrants from pre-pandemic levels, with repercussions for services and low-skilled professions that rely on them.
Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Republicans of using the issue at the border for “political stunts” and refusing to assist fix the problem.
She stated, “Many Republicans insist over and over again that we must secure the border, but they refuse to collaborate with us on this bill.”