Migrants wait in a camp next to the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, on Friday. Officials say an anticipated surge of migrants after the expiration of Title 42 has not happened yet. Photo by Joebeth Terriquez/EPA-EFE
May 12 (UPI) — A day after the end of Title 42, migrants have not surged across the border as expected, but U.S. officials and immigration authorities remain wary.
The COVID-era policy, which allowed the U.S. to turn away migrants immediately based on pandemic health concerns, ended on Thursday night. Officials had said that they were prepared to deal with a marked increase in migrants, but as of Friday evening that had not materialized as feared.
“Overnight, we saw similar patterns to what we’ve seen over the past several days,” Blas Nuñez-Neto, chief operating officer at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Friday, according to The Hill. “We continue to encounter high levels of non-citizens at the border but we did not see a substantial increase overnight or an influx at midnight.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas warned people to enter the border through legal channels.
“Do not believe the lies of smugglers,” Mayorkas said in a statement, according to The San Diego Union Tribune. “The border is not open. People who do not use available lawful pathways to enter the U.S. now face tougher consequences, including a minimum five-year ban on re-entry and potential criminal prosecution.”
The Biden administration recently sent 24,000 additional agents as border towns prepared for the expected influx.
Mario D’Agostino, the Deputy City Manager for public health and safety in El Paso, told NBC News that he was aiming to get migrants to their destinations in 24 to 72 hours.
“We have shelter capabilities right now, but when you start getting that large throughput, there’s only so many flights out of El Paso. There’s only so many buses out of El Paso,” D’Agostino said.
Officials in Laredo, Texas, also said that they had not seen an influx in migrants, although preparations were still in place.
“As a city, we are making all the appropriate preparations to do what we can with the resources that we have,” Laredo Mayor Victor Trevino said, according to LMTOnline. “A primary focus is protecting our medical infrastructure and city resources so that Laredoans are not negatively impacted while providing humanitarian services to migrants.”
Meanwhile in Mexico on Friday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced in a press conference that the National Institute of Migration will stop granting permits to allow migrants to travel across Mexico and to the U.S. border unless the migrants can show legal documentation. Mexico also announced that it was closing more than 30 centers that had been used to house migrants.
On Friday, members of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce called for swift and just immigration reform, following the expiration of Title 42.
“The El Paso Chamber has always been a proponent of commonsense immigration reform,” the chamber said, according to the El Paso Times. “We have not seen a meaningful change in our immigration system in decades. Since then, there have been other policy changes that have turned out to be an impediment to immigrants, often restricting access to legalization, and ultimately making it more difficult for immigrants to enter legally.”