The number of migrants intercepted by US authorities at the border with Mexico was halved after the end of a rule adopted during the covid-19 pandemic, said Sunday the Secretary of Homeland Security.
(Read here: What’s next for migrants in the US after the end of Title 42 this Thursday? Expert speaks)
“In the last two days, the border patrol of USA saw a 50% drop in the number of encounters compared to what we experienced earlier in the week,” he said. Alejandro Mayorkas to the CNN program “State of the Union”.
According to the official, around 6,300 migrants crossed the border with Mexico on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday, numbers that he described as “remarkably low” compared to the 10,000 daily crossings registered at the beginning of the week.
But he stressed that “it is still early” to make diagnoses. “We are only on the third day,” she affirmed, referring to the lifting of the mechanism called “Title 42”Mayorkas added, avoiding any triumphalism.
Title 42, the rule that expired on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. in Washington, allowed the immediate expulsion of migrants without a visa or documentation, including asylum seekers, in the name of the health emergency.
To prevent the massive influx of migrants after his uprising, the government of Democratic President Joe Biden deployed thousands of police and military in the almost 3,200 km that separate the United States and Mexico, and approved new restrictions on the right to asylum.
Before appearing at the border, migrants must previously obtain an appointment through a mobile application for the centralization of asylum applications, CBP One, or their asylum application must have been rejected in one of the transit countries.
Otherwise, they may be subject to expedited deportation proceedings to their home countries and a five-year ban on entry to US territory.
“We are implementing our plan exactly as we planned it,” Mayorkas told ABC. “We have already expelled thousands of migrants: if they try to return, they will face a five-year ban and possible criminal prosecution,” he stressed.
Republican Congressman Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, disputed the figures.
“This week has seen more crossings than any other week in our history,” he told CNN. She attributed it to an increase in the number of people who crossed the border before Title 42 expired.
AFP
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