(Brownsville) US authorities fear a draft on their southern border this week, with the scheduled end of a measure taken during the pandemic, which allowed the immediate deportation of migrants to Mexico, in the name of the fight against COVID-19.
Except for a final twist, this device known as “Title 42” must end Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Washington time.
Joe Biden’s government fears an influx of thousands of migrants and border towns are under pressure.
In Texas, the municipalities of El Paso, Brownsville and Laredo have declared a state of emergency to streamline the care of the many candidates for exile – mainly from Latin America, but also from China, Russia or from Turkey — already there.
In El Paso, hundreds of people sleep in the streets, protected from the sun by sheets or lying on boxes, while children beg.
The mayor, Oscar Leeser, expects to face a wave of “12,000 to 15,000 people” at the end of the week: up to 10,000 migrants are waiting in the neighboring Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, according to a recent count of its services, and others still have to reach the border in the coming days.
Title 42 was activated in 2020 by the administration of former President Donald Trump, in the name of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. His successor, Joe Biden, had extended its validity.
Reactivated asylum system
In practice, this measure mainly prevented access to the American asylum system: migrants without visas were turned back, without being able to file an application.
From Friday, this will be possible again and candidates for exile will be able to have their case processed by the courts. A process that can take years.
The end of this exceptional device arouses the ire of American conservatives. The Republicans are promising a veritable migratory “chaos” and some of them consider that the United States is now in a “state of siege”.
The Biden administration “rolls out the red carpet for people around the world,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott castigated on Monday, announcing that he was mobilizing his state’s National Guard to monitor the border.
The file is thorny for President Joe Biden, who has just announced his candidacy for a second term in 2024. If the right is suing him for laxity, associations for the defense of migrants accuse him of carrying out a migration policy not so different from that of Donald Trump.
Between a message of humanity and a firm speech, the president delivers a balancing act.
With the expiry of “Title 42”, his administration decided to send 1,500 additional troops to the United States’ border with Mexico, to bolster the 2,500 troops already assisting the border police.
Hardening of evictions
The government insists on legal channels of immigration.
Under the new rules which will apply from Friday, migrants who have entered the United States illegally will be able to apply for asylum, but it will be more difficult for them to prove the merits of their request. Those refused will be deported to their country of origin or to Mexico, and they will be prohibited from filing a new application for several years.
Candidates must also submit to an appointment system at border posts, via an online border police application. But the repeated malfunctions of the system frustrate many asylum seekers: some simply try their luck by queuing at the border.
“They tell us to stay calm, to wait here, but they never come. We don’t know why,” said Marjorie, a Venezuelan mother of two children, present in Ciudad Juárez and who does not wish to give her surname, annoyed on Monday.
Tension has risen further in Texas, since eight migrants were killed Sunday in Brownsville by a driver who ran into them at a bus stop. Police say the suspect ran a red light. He was charged with manslaughter.
In El Paso, the municipality provides buses to help migrants get to other parts of the United States. A last resort defended by Mr. Leeser, the mayor.
US immigration law “has been broken for some time”, long before the Biden or Trump era, said the city councilor. “This is all endless and we really need to figure out which direction to take. »