REYNOSA, Mexico (AP) – Restrictions that have prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum in the United States in recent years remained on track to expire in a matter of days after an appeals court ruled facilities on Friday as thousands more migrants took refuge in Mexico. border with the USA
The ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals means the restrictions known as Title 42 must still be lifted on Wednesday unless further appeals are filed.
A coalition of 19 Republican-leaning states was pushing to keep the asylum restrictions put in place by former President Donald Trump at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Migrants have been denied the right to seek asylum under US and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 for reasons of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Public health has left some migrants waiting for time in Mexico.
Immigrant advocates had argued that the United States was abandoning its long history and commitments to offer refuge to people around the world fleeing persecution and sued to end the use of Title 42. They have also argued that the restrictions were a pretext for Trump to restrict migration, and if anything, vaccines and other treatments make that argument obsolete.
A judge last month sided with them and set a Dec. 21 deadline for the federal government to end the practice. Conservative states trying to keep Title 42 in place had pushed to intervene in the case. But a three-judge panel on Friday night rejected their efforts, saying the states had waited too long. Louisiana’s attorney general expressed disappointment with the decision and said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Border cities, most notably El Paso, Texas, are facing a daily influx of migrants that the Biden administration hopes will grow if asylum restrictions are lifted. Tijuana, Mexico’s largest border city, has about 5,000 people in more than 30 shelters, Enrique Lucero, the city’s director of migrant affairs, said this week.
In Reynosa, Mexico, near McAllen, Texas, nearly 300 migrants, mostly families, crammed into Casa del Migrante, sleeping on bunks and even on the floor.
Rose, a 32-year-old Haitian, has been at the shelter for three weeks with her daughter and 1-year-old son. Rose, who did not provide her last name because she fears it could jeopardize her safety and her attempts to apply for asylum, said she learned about possible changes in US policies during her trip. She said she was happy to wait a little longer in Mexico for the lifting of restrictions that were enacted at the start of the pandemic and have become a cornerstone of border enforcement. United States.
“We’re very afraid, because Haitians are deported,” said Rose, who worries that any mistake in trying to bring her family to the United States could send them back to Haiti.
Inside Senda de Vida 2, a Reynosa shelter opened by an evangelical Christian pastor when his first one reached capacity, about 3,000 migrants live in tents pitched on slabs of concrete and gravel. Flies swarm everywhere under a hot sun that beats down even in mid-December.
For the many fleeing violence in Haiti, Venezuela and elsewhere, these havens offer at least some safety from the cartels that control passage along the Rio Grande and prey on migrants.
In McAllen, about 100 migrants who avoided asylum restrictions rested on carpets in a large room run by Catholic Charities on Thursday, awaiting transport to families and friends in the United States.
Gloria, a 22-year-old Honduran woman who is eight months pregnant with her first child, held up a printed sheet that read: “Please help me. I don’t speak English.” Glória also did not want her last name used out of fear for her safety. She expressed concern about navigating through the airport alone and arriving in Florida, where she has a family acquaintance.
Andrea Rudnik, co-founder of a volunteer migrant hosting association in Brownsville, Texas, across the border from Matamoros, Mexico, was concerned about having enough winter coats for migrants from warmer climates .
“We don’t have enough supplies,” he said Friday, noting that donations to the Brownsville team have dwindled.
Title 42, part of a 1944 public health law, applies to all nationalities, but has fallen unevenly on those Mexico agrees to take back: Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and, more recently, Venezuelans, in addition to the Mexicans. Illegal border crossings by unmarried adults declined in November, according to a Justice Department court document released Friday, though it gave no explanation as to why. It also did not take into account families traveling with small children and children traveling alone.
According to the filing, Border Patrol agents detained single adults 143,903 times along the Mexican border in November, down 9 percent from 158,639 times in October and the lowest level since August. Nicaraguans became the second largest nationality at the border among single adults after Mexicans, surpassing Cubans.
Unmarried Venezuelan adults were detained 3,513 times by Border Patrol agents in November, up from 14,697 a month earlier, showing the impact of Mexico’s Oct. 12 decision to accept migrants from the southern country -American who are expelled from the United States.
Single Mexican adults were stopped 43,504 times, compared to 56,088 times in October, more than any other nationality. Nicaraguan adults were stopped 27,369 times, compared to 16,497. Cuban adults were stopped 24,690 times, compared to 20,744.
In a related development, a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, ruled Thursday that the Biden administration wrongly ended a Trump-era policy of making asylum seekers wait in Mexico for the hearings in the United States immigration court. The ruling had no immediate impact, but could be a long-term setback for the White House.
___
Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas contributed to this report.
___
This version fixes November’s illegal crossings only for single adults, not all migrants.