Asylum seekers, migrants cross en masse at Texas-Mexico border as Title 42 nears end

JUÁREZ, Mexico — Hundreds of migrants huddled late Sunday on the north bank of the Rio Grande river in hopes of seeking asylum in the United States, one of the largest mass crossings the El Paso-Juarez border has seen in decades. Officials have seen an influx of thousands of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border with the Title 42 restriction scheduled to end on Dec. 21. Immigration experts have said the decision to end the policy could have triggered the surge in asylum-seeking migrants who were released by federal immigration authorities in border state communities. "We've been experiencing an influx since September," said Border Patrol El Paso Sector spokeswoman Valeria Morales. "In November, our demographics changed to Nicaraguans. You see the migrants staging and waiting to be transferred." Title 42 was introduced under President Donald Trump's administration in March 2020, allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants and close official ports of entry for asylum seekers. Under the Biden administration, the policy has been used to mitigate flows of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. TITLE 42 POLICY ENDING: With Title 42 ending near, Border Patrol braces for rush at US-Mexico border. Here's what we know. The rusted steel U.S. border fence stood above and behind the long line of migrants, but they were already in U.S. territory, waiting their turn for a chance to seek asylum that had been denied to other migrants more than 2 million times in the past two years under the Title 42 expulsion policy. In November, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government's use of Title 42 to prevent migrants from lawfully claiming asylum at the border is "arbitrary and capricious" and violates the law. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington gave the Biden administration until Dec. 21 to stop the expulsions. Migrants wait to get into a U.S. government bus after crossing the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. According to the Ciudad Juarez Human Rights Office, hundreds of mostly Central American migrants arrived in buses and crossed the border to seek asylum in the US, after spending the night in shelters. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez) 'I'm waiting to try again here' Grabis Mar, a 30-year-old Venezuelan, waded back and forth through the cold river water in Crocs and soaking-wet socks to deliver potato chips, snacks, and coffee to the migrants in line. She tried to seek asylum three times at the Texas-Mexico border, she said, but was expelled to Mexico all three times. Mar said that she wants to reach the U.S. to support her three children back home. "I'm waiting to try again here, because they say they're going to open the border," she said. "I'm waiting to see if they will open it for Venezuelans, on the 21st. In the meantime, I'm selling a little bit of everything." Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, which includes the city footprint and all of New Mexico, is reporting an average of 2,100 encounters each day in December. The encounters include apprehensions of those who attempt to evade border agents and asylum seekers who are turning themselves in. It's not the first time this year that immigration flows have surged at the El Paso border. LAST BUS OUT:How one family's trip on a migrant bus delivered a dream Daily migrant encounters in the El Paso sector topped more than 2,000 a day in October, but asylum seekers were being quickly ushered in and processed under canopies at a mobile unit and were less visible. The unit was dismantled last week in anticipation of coming wintry weather, Morales said. Get the Everyone's Talking newsletter in your inbox. Get caught up with the trending news you need to know Delivery: Mon - Fri Your Email "It was meant to be temporary," she said. "With the temperatures going down, the (sector) chief decided it would be best to demobilize, for the migrants and agents as well." Many of the migrants in line on the river bank Monday were believed to be Nicaraguan nationals transported to Juárez from a large caravan in buses sponsored by the Mexican government. The El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, witnessed 20 buses arriving at two shelters in Juárez on Sunday evening: seven buses at a federal shelter and another 13 buses at a municipal shelter. The U.S. cannot quickly expel or deport some migrants, including those who are from countries with which the U.S. has a fraught relationship and who aren't subject to a special U.S.-Mexico agreement. 'But this here is denigrating' After thousands of Venezuelans arrived at the U.S. border in August and September, the Biden administration reached a deal with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to receive expelled Venezuelan nationals. Since October, Border Patrol has been able to quickly return Venezuelans to Mexico. Nicaraguans cannot be expelled to Mexico or returned to Nicaragua, Morales said. Nicaragua has been in political and social upheaval since big street protests that broke out in April 2018 became a referendum on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's rule. More than 200,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country since, most to neighboring Costa Rica. But with Costa Rica's overwhelmed asylum system and struggling economy more have instead migrated to the United States. For the fiscal year that ended in September, U.S. border agents encountered Nicaraguans nearly 164,000 times at the southwest border — more than triple the level for the previous year. POLITICAL THEATER VS. DAILY SURVIVAL:Inside the dire situation facing migrants bused across US Raul Román, 53, stood on the south bank of the Rio Grande watching the massive line grow by the hour. The Cuban had made this journey before, 12 years ago, at a different point along the Texas border. Back then, asylum seekers like him crossed at an official port of entry to make their claim. He had and was successful; Román said that he lives in Miami as a U.S. permanent legal residentand that he runs a trucking company that services the fracking industry in Texas. He had come to Juárez to see whether he could bring his 80-year-old mother from Cuba to the border. But the Rio Grande, with its currents and stones, and this line in the cold — she couldn't survive it, he said. The legal process could take years, which is time they don't have. "I've got to bring her somehow," Román said. "But this here is denigrating. I saw it on TV, but I didn't think it would really be like this." For more information, visit us at http://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/index.html.