Stephanie Whiteside and Ali Bradley
47 minutes ago
(NewsNation) — Officials say the number of immigrants entering the U.S. has continued to decline since Title 42 expired, but communities in border areas have seen an influx of migrants who arrived earlier. said they are still struggling with
Title 42 is a public health policy that allows border agents to turn people away, effectively suspending their legal right to seek asylum. The policy was originally written in the 1940s and was revived by former President Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many expected immigration to skyrocket when Title 42 ended, but for now the number of people encountered at the border is on the decline.
Officials in Yuma, Arizona, said they saw hundreds of people crossing Tuesday morning, but no substantial migrant mass.
The number of encounters may have declined, but Customs and Border Protection said the number of people in custody still exceeded the agency’s capacity. There are currently about 19,000 people in CBP custody, but normally about 10,000.
Over the past few days, my anxiety has basically halved. Authorities are trying to expedite detained individuals, but thousands are still waiting.
Whether the decline in immigration is a sign that the border crisis is over is debatable. Some fear that the decline in encounters simply means that people are evading detection while Border Patrol agents work to deal with those already in custody.
Yuma is a unique border crossing, partly because of the people crossing the border. In Texas, investigators saw groups mostly from Latin American countries such as Venezuela. Arizona has a more diverse immigrant population, including from so-called “special interest countries” such as Uzbekistan and China, agents report.
People from about 140 countries gather here, including Peru, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. Many people want to go to states far from the border, like New York, New Jersey or Indiana.
Sources say these migrants fly directly to Mexico City and end up in the hands of smugglers who direct them to specific areas and control where they pass through. . If they find a border patrol hole, the cartel will continue to direct migrants through it.
Yuma County Superintendent Jonathan Lyons said he saw people from countries he had never met before.
“People are coming from countries that have never crossed here. A lot from Africa: this morning we found passports from Ghana, Mauritania and Senegal,” Lyons told NewNation’s Ali Bradley. Told.
Immigrants know that unless they seek refuge in another country they pass through on their way to the United States, they will be excluded under new rules introduced by the Biden administration. A similar rule was tried during the Trump administration but was overturned in court, and will likely face similar legal challenges under the Biden administration.
Border agents said migrants were destroying documents before encountering officials to avoid enforcing safe third country rules.
There is also a new construction of the border wall initiated by former President Donald Trump. President Joe Biden has said in the past that the administration would not do more. But in December, the administration announced plans to complete parts of the wall already under construction in Arizona, California and Texas.
This came after former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey built a wall of shipping containers at a cost of millions of dollars.
