Migrants gather at US-Mexico border as Covid-era restrictions near end

The Covid restrictions, known as Title 42, were first implemented under Republican then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. At the time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the order was needed to stem the spread of the coronavirus in crowded detention settings.

Title 42 allowed border agents to rapidly expel many migrants to Mexico, but some public health experts, Democrats and advocates criticized its health justification, saying it was part of Trump's goal of curbing legal and illegal immigration.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021 vowing to reverse Trump's restrictive approach but kept Title 42 in place and expanded it as his administration grappled with record migrant arrests at the US-Mexico border.

Since its inception, migrants have been expelled more than 2.7 million times under Title 42, although the total includes many repeat crossers and Mexico has generally only accepted certain nationalities.

The Biden administration intends to lift Title 42 Thursday when the US Covid public health emergency ends.

Migrants caught crossing the border will again be able to request asylum, a process that can take years to resolve.

US border officials are preparing for a possible increase in illegal crossings, the result of pent-up demand and the perception among migrants that they will be allowed in.

'Border is not open,' migrants may be deported -Mayorkas

US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday delivered remarks on the eve of Covid-19 border restrictions set to end, saying the border is "not open" and that illegal entrants "will be quickly returned."

The US rolled out a new regulation on Wednesday that will deny asylum to most migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally.

The regulation creates a new presumption that migrants arriving at the border are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without seeking protection elsewhere first or if they failed to use legal pathways for US entry.

Mayorkas said the new rule would mean harsher consequences for illegal border crossers. Instead of being quickly expelled to Mexico, they could be deported and barred from the US for five years if they do not qualify for asylum.

"Our overall approach is to build lawful pathways for people to come to the United States and to impose tougher consequences on those who choose not to use those pathways," Mayorkas said at a press conference in Washington.

He blamed Congress for not passing meaningful immigration reform "for more than two decades," adding that lawmakers have failed to provide funds requested by the Biden administration for border agents, facilities and transportation.

Migrants stranded on the US-Mexico border were served peanut butter sandwiches by volunteers

Aid workers and volunteers gathered at the US-Mexico border near San Diego, California, on Wednesday and some passed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to stranded migrants.

Hundreds of migrants have been gathering between two US border fences as they await the end of a three-year-long Covid-19 policy that blocked people crossing from seeking asylum.

"Behind us, we have migrants who are asylum seekers who have been here for six days, seven days. Some of them have just arrived last night and they are in squalid conditions," said Pedro Rio, a volunteer and migrant rights supporter.

"(They) don't have access to food or water," he added.

On Wednesday, dozens reached through the fence asking for food as volunteers brought peanut butter sandwiches, oranges, water and other items.

Activists say that queues of migrants started arriving this week in the city of Tijuana, which borders San Diego, hoping to get ahead of a potential rush in asylum applications after May 11.

Migrants were processed in Brownsville, Texas as COVID-era restrictions near the end

As the end of Covid-19 border restrictions known as Title 42 approaches, groups of migrants have been lining up in a temporary staging area known as 'Camp Monument' in Brownsville, Texas, and were being searched and processed by US border agents on Wednesday.

Brownsville sits across the Rio Grande River from Matamoros, Mexico, where rights activists said migrants have been seen purchasing pool floats and life jackets to prepare to cross the river.

The US Border Patrols' Gloria Chavez said on Friday that the agency had screened and processed close to 30,000 migrants since April 16. Most of the migrants were from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, she said. After processing, migrants are taken to Border Patrol stations or ports of entry, Chavez said.

Reuters