With the argument of the covid-19 pandemic and unearthing a norm included in the Public Health Law of 1944 created by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the former US president donald trump (2017 2021) proclaimed in March 2020 the Title 42a regulation that has allowed the expulsions of migrants at the border with Mexico of people of certain nationalities after crossing the border irregularly, without the possibility of requesting asylum.
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As of this Thursday, however, the border between the United States and Mexico closes a chapter and that measure comes to an end.
It is estimated that The United States has carried out more than 2.5 million expulsions in all this timeaccording to figures collected by the organization International Rescue Committee.
The use of Title 42 has been widely criticized by organizations in defense of human rights, which ensure that it is a violation of international law, since it prohibits people who need protection from seeking asylum in the United States.
(You can read: What’s next for migrants in the US after the end of Title 42 this Thursday? Expert speaks)
In turn, it has been the subject of several lawsuits, both asking that it be withdrawn and that it be maintained. However, the end of Title 42 comes hand in hand with the lifting of the national emergency due to the pandemic this Thursday at 11:59 pm (local time).
To replace Title 42, and with the intention of halting what is expected to be a significant increase in land migration, the Joe Biden administration has implemented a series of measures that restrict access to asylum at the border, which, according to experts and activists, are similar to the policies promoted by Trump that the Democrat promised to revoke during his electoral campaign.
Thus, this Friday, May 12, the regulations come into force Title 8, which establishes serious consequences for crossing the border, and there will also be a rule created by Biden that will restrict access to asylum for people seeking to reach the United States by land.
(Keep reading: The US response to curb mass migration after the end of Title 42)
By eliminating Title 42, it was expected that the usual rules would be applied again to review asylum cases, which by law must be requested on US soil. However, the Biden government has decided to implement this package of measures.
The regulation, which was published this Wednesday in the federal register, qualifies migrants who cross the border irregularly and who have not requested protection in a third country during their journey to the United States as “unfit” to request asylum.
The main legal way to request asylum in that country available to people arriving at the border will be through the CBP One mobile application.which allows immigrants to make appointments with the authorities to present their cases.
The North American country will thus offer some 1,000 daily appointments to request asylum through this procedure, a figure that, according to public officials, may increase “depending on the capacity” of the migration service workers.
(Also read: From one immigration restriction to another in the US: What is ‘Title 8’?)
Those who do not take advantage of this process and decide to cross the border irregularly will be declared ineligible to request asylum in the United States, unless they have previously been denied in a third country or they demonstrate that they have encountered technological or language barriers to access the application.
“Those who do not use legal means to enter the United States are not eligible for asylum,” the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, explained this Wednesday at a press conference.
Those who do not use legal routes to enter the United States are not eligible for asylum.
To implement these measures, the Biden Executive has decided to increase the staff of immigration agencies, with more than 24,000 officials, and deploy 1,500 soldiers on the border.
At the same time, The United States has increased the number of deportation flights to countries in the region and it has also reached an agreement with Mexico so that the neighboring country receives up to 30,000 deported migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba per month.
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Tom Cartwright, a specialist with Witnesses at the Border, an organization that defends the rights of migrants, told this newspaper that, in his opinion, Title 8 “does not appear” to be legal. “It seems to go against all the asylum laws that are in force nationally and internationally. So we’ll have to see where this stops. But the asylum ban for those passing through a third country of transit seems especially egregious.” he pointed out.
Uncertainty on the US-Mexico border grows hours before the end of Title 42. The US border city of El Paso, in Texas, has opened a municipal shelter and is preparing two others to shelter up to 4,500 migrants in anticipation that Central and South American refugees will overflow the border after the expiration of the rule that allows hot expulsions for reasons of public health.
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Total, 275 Red Cross cots wait in rows on the indoor basketball court at Basset High School, that it has been closed for three years and that it is ready to house up to five hundred new arrivals who have their papers in order, that is, who have turned themselves in to the Border Patrol and passed their screening.
“We are preparing for the unknown,” said El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, who wanted to draw attention to the fact that this week “much fewer people than last week” entered.
Broadly speaking, the Mayor’s Office estimates that after the expiration of Title 42 they will have to care for between 5,000 and 10,000 refugees. Although Leeser insisted: “We have seen the numbers go down, but we do not know what will happen the next day. We do not know what will happen in the next 10 days. What we know is that they will continue to come and we will continue to make sure that we help.”
In the last few hours, agents of the National Guard and the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the United States carried out a security drill at the international port of San Ysidro.
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At the crossing from Tijuana (Mexico) to San Diego (United States), The agents were deployed in lanes 28 to 34, where they carried out various containment maneuversIn addition, they launched several gas bombs and during the approximately six minutes that the deployment lasted, some detonations were also heard. According to CBP, these actions are carried out with the intention of inhibiting attempts to cross by undocumented persons.
The region is facing an unprecedented migratory flow, with more than 2.76 million undocumented immigrants intercepted by the United States at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022. The expectation of the end of the controversial Title 42 is very high.
WILLIAM MORENO HERNANDEZ
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
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