Live updates: What the Texas border looks like after Title 42
The pandemic-era policy known as Title 42 ended Thursday night. The restriction had allowed the U.S. to quickly send migrants — even those seeking asylum — out of the country since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic.
What will the end of Title 42 mean for migrants, Texans living on the border, and immigration as we know it? The Texas Newsroom's reporters will be on the border — from El Paso to Big Bend to the Rio Grande Valley — today, sharing updates here and on your local NPR station. Follow along as we document the story unfold in real time.
- Here's everything we saw on the border on Thursday.
- Title 42 was meant to slow COVID at the border. It's being used to manage migration
The Texas Newsroom is a public radio journalism collaboration that includes NPR, KERA in North Texas, Houston Public Media, KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio and other stations across the state.
As Title 42 ended, some migrants in South Texas took their chances crossing the Rio Grande
In the early morning hours of Friday, dozens of migrants living in an encampment in Matamoros, which is Brownsville's border city in Mexico, decided to swim across the Rio Grande to enter the U.S.
Title 42 expired late Thursday, making asylum harder to claim for the thousands of people fleeing their homes in Central and South America, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Raquel Garrido, 23, is from Venezuela. On Thursday night she stood on the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, assessing whether to wade through the river with her 10-month-old baby.
She also considered her fate once she crossed. Troops from the Texas National Guard and Operation Lone Star erected a barbed wire fence on the U.S. side.
"I don't know whether to go through that river," she told TPR's Stephania Corpi. "It's not so much the river, it's the barbed wire."
Garrido ultimately decided to stay in Mexico.
Gov. Abbot's controversial $4 billion Operation Lone Star Program uses the Texas National Guard and state troopers to arrest migrants on state trespassing charges and to deter them from crossing.
Mexican immigration officials told TPR that two people almost drowned trying to cross into Brownsville Thursday night.
Officials in Texas say they aren't sure how migrants will be processed once they're in the U.S.
Minutes before Title 42 expired at 9:59 p.m. Mountain Time in El Paso Thursday, one stretch of the border that had seen an uptick in unauthorized crossings over the last weeks was relatively quiet. At Gate 42, a section of the border fence in southeast El Paso, reporters and U.S. Border Patrol agents milled about in the desert sand while hundreds of people amassed across the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez.
Customs and Border Protection officials said that about 350 to 400 migrants were still waiting to be processed and enter the United States as the clocked ticked down.
Univision reported early Friday that hundreds of migrants were still lined up in Ciudad Juarez in that area and being processed by U.S. Border Patrol officials, although it’s unclear if they will be subject to the restrictions under Title 8 or the new asylum restrictions the Biden administration said would go into effect after Title 42 expired.
During a conference call with reporters Friday morning, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said it was her assumption that migrants processed after the expiration of Title 42 would be processed under Title 8 policies. She said she would be in touch with Border Patrol leaders in Washington later in the day and confirm that was the case.
The return of Title 8 may be a welcome lifeline for thousands of migrants who have been stuck in overcrowded shelters or have been living on the streets of Mexican border cities, often prey to violence and exploitation.
But the longstanding protocols also carry stiffer penalties for migrants who are caught crossing the border illegally, including the possibility of a five-year ban on entry to the U.S. for migrants who are deported, as well as prosecution.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration finalized a new rule that severely limits asylum for those who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. (The rule was first announced in February and is likely to face legal challenges.)
In the 40 hours leading up to Title 42's end, officials had taken about 1,500 migrants into custody in the El Paso area. Throughout May, the El Paso sector of the Border Patrol had about 1,150 encounters per day, a slight decrease from the April average of about 1,400.
El Paso's mayor says the city has seen a 'smooth transition' so far
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said on Friday that the city has seen a “smooth transition” so far after Title 42 expired Thursday night.
During a press call with reporters, he said only about 150 people, who are all part of family units, are in one of the city’s two temporary shelters that was opened in anticipation of a predicted wave of migrants. Single men and women that have been processed are staying in hotels.
Though Friday has been a relatively calm, Leeser said the city is still preparing for what happens next.
“We know that we still need to prepare for the unknown because we don’t know what’s going to happen next week and going to continue to happen day in and day out,” he said. “We actually have had a very smooth transition as Title 42 has lapsed and we’ve gone to Title 8.”
The mayor said that the people in shelters and hotels have been processed and have proper documentation. The city hasn’t needed to bus people out of the city so and is working with federal officials to ensure that migrants don’t need to be released onto the streets if shelter space is no longer available.
“The next coming days will tell how the releases happen, how they’re coming into the community, and what the population really is,” deputy chief Mario D’Agostino said.
Heavy rain over the weekend will add to the challenges in South Texas
Heavy rain looms over South Texas as migrants wait, often without shelter, in Mexico for their chance to enter the U.S. and those who have already crossed are being processed.
A flood watch will be in effect from Saturday to Sunday in South Texas. Between 5 to 8 inches of rain are expected in Laredo, and showers could leave behind 2 to 4 inches in Brownsville. A cold front is also adding to the wet weekend.
Officials have cautioned migrants against crossing the Rio Grande, which could swell with additional rain and become even more treacherous to cross.