Arizona, border states bracing for post-Title 42 migrant influx
Arizona was preparing Thursday for the anticipated end of the controversial U.S. health policy that has been used to manage migration levels at the U.S.-Mexico border and bottled up thousands of migrants in Mexican border communities for more than three years.
Title 42 was first implemented under the Trump administration in March 2020 under the pretext of stopping the spread of COVID-19 within immigration facilities. The Biden administration has continued to enforce Title 42 to swiftly expel migrants arriving at the nation’s borders.
The restriction was set to expire at 8:59 p.m. Arizona time Thursday when the COVID-19 public health emergency officially lifts.
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The news of Title 42’s sunset was met with a round of applause from about 200 migrants who had gathered Thursday at the Kino Border Initiative migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Shelter officials led a town hall to inform migrants about the end of the border restriction on Thursday night while also advising them about President Joe Biden’s new rule that would heavily restrict their access to asylum.
The finalized rule would require migrants to request and be denied asylum in a country that they passed along their way to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Some migrants had previously asked shelter officials if they could show up to the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry when Title 42 expired at 8:59 p.m.
The repercussions from the end of Title 42 at the border weren't expected until Friday or in the days and weeks ahead.
It was possible for long lines to form at larger ports of entry along the border in the days after the restriction’s end, experts said.
In Texas, which is widely seen as at the center of the migrant crisis, El Paso authorities saw large numbers of asylum seekers aiming to enter the United States after gathering at the border, the El Paso Times reported. A new group of about 400 migrants set up at a makeshift migrant border camp near the Rio Grande in El Paso's Lower Valley.
In Tijuana, Mexico, a makeshift camp with migrants waiting to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol popped up approximately two miles west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego.
The camp is located on the border enforcement zone on the American side, in between the two border barriers separating San Diego from Tijuana.
The number of migrants camped out was unclear, but Tijuana officials put their estimate at 500 people.
Makeshift tents using tarps or metallic mylar blankets lined the secondary border fence.
Another large group sat on the dirt floor waiting a few feet south of the fence for further instructions.
On Thursday morning, more than a dozen marked and unmarked Border Patrol vehicles were at the camp, along with numerous agents. CBP helicopters also flew overhead repeatedly.
Border Patrol vans stopped at the camp to pick up smaller groups of migrants. But it was unclear what would happen to the larger group.
With hours to go until the end of Title 42, the scene in San Diego resembled the situation in El Paso as migrants waited to be processed.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials also started to prepare for a potential increase of people at Nogales’ Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry.
Shipping container barriers topped with concertina wire and metal poles blocked three vehicle lanes into the U.S. at the port of entry Thursday afternoon. Two of the green-and-beige containers flanked the vehicle lane for cars coming into Mexico.
Graffiti sprayed onto one of the containers read “bad junk” underneath bold black letters that read “property of U.S. Army.” Spools of the concertina wire were stacked from floor to ceiling at one of the openings of the port near the Sentri vehicle lane.
“CBP has taken several steps to maintain the security our facilities in the event of large crowds of to include slowing or halting the flow of traffic, the implementation of port hardening infrastructure and the deployment of officer to ensure the safety and integrity of the port of entry,” John Mennell, CBP's public affairs specialist for Arizona, said in a written statement.
The concertina wire has been at the port since May 3 when a photo of the wire was posted to Facebook by someone waiting to drive through.
There also appeared to be an increased presence of Mexican military personnel near the traffic roundabout steps from the port of entry. The overall scene of the port of entry otherwise was calm with normal operations.
U.S. officials are estimating migrant encounters to rise to 11,000 a day after the restriction is lifted. Arizona has already begun to see an increase in migrant arrivals in the days ahead of the restriction’s end.
Bisbee, Naco, Nogales and Douglas experienced the release of migrants into the communities by border officials Monday before the migrants were bussed to Casa Alitas in Tucson.
The small border communities often lack the infrastructure to care for and transport migrants as they’re released and before they can connect to their final destinations elsewhere in the country.
What is Title 42? The US border immigration policy, explained
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Tuesday the state had established five new bus routes to run from Nogales, Douglas and Naco in an effort to transport migrants from those communities to Tucson.
Casa Alitas has received about 300 migrants daily from the small border communities since the routes were established Monday. Casa Alitas is currently at capacity as they’re serving about 600 to 650 people a day with a total of 1,200 people circulating through their six facilities at any given time, according to Casa Alitas Executive Director Teresa Cavendish.
Migrant street releases in southern Arizona could begin as soon as later this week, depending on the number of migrant encounters seen after Title 42 sunsets, Cavendish said.
Similarly, Phoenix humanitarian groups are preparing for a potential increase in the number of people they serve once Title 42 goes away. The groups have been preparing extra volunteers, reserving additional hotel rooms and stocking up on food and clothes.
John Modlin, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, said the agency is as prepared as it can be for the expiration of Title 42 during a border safety event on Monday.
Title 42 has been used more than 2.8 million times to expel migrants without giving them an opportunity to present their case in front of an immigration judge. Thousands of migrants have become stranded in Mexican border communities as they wait for their chance to seek asylum in the U.S.
The nonprofit Human Rights First has documented more than 13,400 reports of “murder, torture, kidnapping, rape” and other violent attacks against migrants expelled to Mexico under Title 42 since Biden first took office.
On Capitol Hill, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass a border-security package that would resume construction on former President Donald Trump's border wall and hinder asylum access. It would also cut a program that lets U.S. officials quickly accept or turn back some migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, who can apply to come to the U.S. for two years legally and work, USA TODAY reported. Ukrainian refugees could also be affected, in theory, because they are in the U.S. under the same type of agreement.
The Democrat-controlled Senate is not expected to embrace the House bill and the White House has already issued a veto threat.
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., both expressed that Arizona would bear the brunt of Title 42 ending, and that they have and would continue to put pressure on the Biden administration to provide additional assistance to Arizona.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who is running for Sinema's Senate seat, recently told Politico that "we should really put on the table an emergency declaration.
"I think that will actually do a lot of help for that area," Gallego said, according to a transcript provided by his staff. "I think that talking to the mayors and the nonprofits in the area, that’s something that I think could actually be more helpful kind of help deal with the situation we’re seeing on the ground.”
Border Patrol: Border Patrol as prepared as it can be for border restriction's end, Tucson chief says
Republic reporter Tara Kavaler, the El Paso Times and USA TODAY contributed to this report.
Have a news tip or story idea about the border and its communities? Contact the reporter at josecastaneda@arizonarepublic.com or connect with him on Twitter @joseicastaneda.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Title 42 is ending in Arizona today. Here's what you need to know.
