By Julio-Cesar Chavez and Lizbeth Diaz
EL PASO, Texas U.S. border agents in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday urged hundreds of migrants amassing on city streets to surrender to authorities as illegal crossings rose in the run-up to the end of COVID-19 border restrictions known as Title 42 later this week.
At the same time, migrants were gathering at different points on the Mexican side of the U.S. southern border in anticipation of crossing when border policy changes just before midnight on May 11.
In Matamoros, Mexico, migrants purchased pool floats and life jackets to prepare to cross the Rio Grande River into Brownsville, Texas, said migrant rights activist Gladys Canas. And in Tijuana, across from San Diego, California, migrants formed long lines in front of a towering border fence on Monday, with the aim of turning themselves in to U.S. border agents.
The scenes come as Title 42 is set to expire on Thursday. The policy, implemented in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has allowed U.S. authorities to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants to Mexico without the chance to seek U.S. asylum.
The Democratic administration of President Joe Biden is allowing the measure to lapse, as the broader COVID-19 public health emergency also ends.
Not all migrants caught crossing the border illegally have been subjected to Title 42 expulsions, with more than half in recent months allowed into the U.S. to pursue their immigration cases. Mexico also accepts just certain nationalities and limits the migrants it takes in based on capacity.
Biden's public approval stood at 40% in recent days, close to the lowest level since he took office in 2021, with Americans unhappy about his handling of immigration and inflation, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
Biden, who is seeking reelection in 2024, has struggled with the record numbers of migrants arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans have criticized him for rolling back many of the more restrictive policies of Republican former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for his party's nomination.
In recent weeks, illegal border crossings have climbed and more migrants are coming in the hopes they will now be allowed to apply for asylum in the United States after Title 42 ends, leaving U.S. border cities struggling to provide housing and transportation to the thousands arriving each day.
A top U.S. border official said last month that they were preparing for up to 10,000 migrants per day crossing illegally after Title 42 ends, nearly double the daily rate in March.
'MAXED OUT' SHELTERS
El Paso has been among the spots on the border where crossings have risen even as U.S. authorities have deployed more personnel to the area.
On Monday night, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a "targeted enforcement operation" in El Paso to arrest migrants and process them for possible deportation or release. The agency also said it would reduce the flow of legal travelers across the Paso Del Norte port of entry to focus on security.
Men in civilian clothes handled out Spanish-language flyers in downtown El Paso on Tuesday morning calling on migrants to head to the nearest U.S. Border Patrol station for processing, migrants said.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not respond to requests for comment. But Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council representing U.S. border agents, confirmed that agents distributed the handouts.
Judd said border officials were working to process as many migrants as possible before Title 42 ends.
The flyer, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, also said migrants must report to border authorities before accessing El Paso shelters, an assertion advocates said was not true.
Despite the message on the flyers - which did not identify the source - the vast majority of El Paso shelters do not require migrants to prove they have been processed by border authorities, said Camille Castillo, director of the El Paso Coalition for the Homeless.
Castillo said shelters are already "maxed out."
Daniel Mena, a recently arrived Venezuelan migrant standing near the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, said on Tuesday morning that he did not plan to turn himself in because he was worried the U.S. might deport him.
But hours later, after seeing other migrants return with U.S. paperwork, he lined up at a Border Patrol station.
"I decided to go for it," Mena said.
(Reporting by Julio-Cesar Chavez in El Paso, Texas, and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Writing by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Deepa Babington)