Thousands of migrants who have flocked to parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to San Diego to Tijuana, will seek asylum once pandemic-related restrictions known as Title 42 are put into effect. It left the question of when and when to enter the United States. Ended.

Some immigrants traveling from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Central America feared it would be difficult for them to stay in the mainland United States. Restrictions have been lifted.

Here are some of the stories along our 1,950 miles (3,140 kilometers) of borders.

___ Aylin Guevara, 45, hurried as he walked across the scorching desert of Ciudad Juárez towards the border.

She was accompanied by her two children, ages 16 and 5, and her husband.Her family fled a coastal city in Colombia after receiving death threats, hoping to find refuge in the United States

After spending the night before in a hotel, they wanted to go to the border — “with the help of God and the Baby Jesus, to get in and out of the border,” Guevara said.

But when they arrived with hours to go until the end of Title 42, U.S. immigration officials said they couldn’t get through.

“No more, it’s over,” he said loudly to them, directing them to a bridge 10 miles (16 km) to the left and right.

___ Maria José Durán, a 24-year-old student from Venezuela, was sitting on the banks of a river in Matamoros, Mexico, almost crying.

Mexican immigration officials were moving migrants to makeshift camps, keeping them away from crossing the Rio Grande.

Durand said he dropped out of college and traveled to the United States with a group of friends and relatives because his parents could no longer afford it.they crossed the bridge Traitor Darien Gap It cuts Colombia and Panama, then cuts six more countries before reaching the US border.

“I don’t know what to think now, after such a difficult journey, and now in this situation,” she said as at least a dozen Texas state troopers with rifles He gestured to the other bank standing behind the bellows wire.

From the Mexican side, the Texas National Guard could be seen reinforcing another wire to prevent immigrant encroachment.

Durand was later seen walking along the embankment with other migrants who had crossed the Rio Grande and crossed barbed wire.

___ Hundreds of migrants lined up next to the border wall in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, were still trying to cross on Thursday, hours before Title 42 restrictions were lifted, and were reported to the U.S. Border Patrol. was accepted. That number was significantly lower than in recent days.

Ecuadorian Washington Javier Vaca, his wife Paulina Congo, and their two children, ages 14 and 7, knew nothing about the rule change.

“And will things get better or worse for us now?” Congo asked. “We asked for asylum in Mexico, but after four months they refused us.”

A Salvadoran man who identified himself as David fled the border back to Ciudad Juárez for fear of deportation.

___ Authorities in the remote desert region of Yuma, Arizona, have issued a warning after the average daily number of migrant arrivals rose from 300 to 1,000 this week.

Hundreds of people who crossed the Colorado River into the Yuma area in the early hours of Thursday surrendered to border agents, after which the adults and children were taken to buses.

Mayor Doug Nichols has asked the federal government to declare a national disaster and dispatch Federal Emergency Management Agency resources and the National Guard to rush to the mayor and other small border communities.

Most migrants are transferred to shelters run by nonprofits far from the border, but border officials plan to release migrants back into the community if sufficient transportation is not available. Nichols said officials had already told him they planned to release 141 people in Yuma County on Friday.

“There’s always the question, ‘What’s next?’ I kept asking this question for two years and never got an answer,” Nichols said. “We are in an unprecedented situation.”

___ Hundreds of migrants who had been waiting for days to claim asylum lined up Thursday along the towering steel pillars that separate Tijuana and San Diego.

At one point, a U.S. Border Patrol agent crouched down to speak to a woman who had passed out on the dusty ground.

Others chose not to crowd the border and instead stayed in Tijuana shelters and waited for existing asylum reservations or tried to book online. Hundreds gathered in the bright yellow building of the Agape Mision Mundial Refuge, many more arriving at the metal gates with only papers and a few belongings.

Daisy Busia, 37, arrived at the shelter with her 15-year-old daughter more than three months ago after fleeing the Mexican state of Michoacan after receiving death threats. The two were in Calexico, Calif., on Saturday, waiting for a bus to head inland to Mexicali to apply for asylum across the border.

___ Leaders of a nonprofit that helps asylum seekers fleeing the Arizona border said they were as prepared as possible for the new scenario.

“We are committed to working with all available resources to address this issue,” said Teresa Cavendish, executive director of Casa Aritas, Tucson’s largest shelter. “But that may not be enough.”

Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona operates a new 300-bed facility for men at Casa Aritas, as well as four other facilities that temporarily accommodate women, families and vulnerable groups. with a combined capacity of more than 1,000 beds.

International Rescue Commission Chairman David Miliband, who visited the International Rescue Commission Welcome Center in Phoenix this week, expressed confidence in the International Rescue Commission’s ability to deal with the growing number of asylum seekers in the area. The 340-bed shelter was less than half capacity.

“This challenge is manageable as long as it is done in an organized and humane way,” Miliband said.

“We served 50,000 people last year and 38,000 people the year before, without negatively impacting clients or communities,” said Beth Strano, engagement manager at the center in a quiet neighborhood south of Phoenix. ‘ said.

___ Smugglers helped Guatemalan Shady Mazariegos and her four-year-old son reach Matamoros, Mexico, where she and her child crossed the Rio Grande on a raft.

But Border Patrol agents detained two people near Brownville, Texas, a week ago. On Thursday, the 26-year-old and her son returned to Guatemala on one of two flights carrying a total of 387 migrants.

“I heard on the news that there was a chance to enter the country. I heard it on the radio, but it was all a lie,” Mazariegos said.

___ At the border wall in Tijuana, migrants begged passers-by for blankets, food and water as the sun sank over the steep hills.

Gerson Aguilera, 41, arrived in Tijuana around 4 p.m. with his three children and wife and crossed a pedestrian crossing to apply for asylum. Aguilera, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, said he fled with his family after organized criminals began demanding extortion money double the 2,000 Honduran lempiras a week (about $81) they had already paid. rice field.

“It’s very difficult. If you pay them, they’ll kill you,” Aguilera said with tears in her eyes.

Welding shop owner Aguilera said she left her home once in 2020 due to threats, but returned when the situation calmed down. It was no longer an option.

“We ask God to help us,” said Aguilar.

___

Associated Press reporter Gerardo Carrillo of Matamoros, Mexico, María Versa of Ciudad Juárez, Sonia Pérez D of Guatemala City, and Suman Naishadam of Tijuana contributed to the report. Snow reported from Phoenix.