Migrants make their way across the Rio Grande River on Thursday, May 11, 2023 in Matamoros, Mexico. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The end of Title 42 has sent tremors across the U.S., marking a major shift in immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The termination of the Trump-era public health order spurred a new surge at the already strained southern border, where a growing number of migrants from Central America continue to flee violence, poverty and economic and political instability with hopes of seeking refuge in the United States. President Joe Biden has warned of a “chaotic” period ahead, as the U.S. adjusts to a patchwork of policy solutions from the Biden administration, including a new rule that will bar most people from applying for asylum if they cross the border illegally or fail to first apply for safe harbor in another country.
Just how bad things could get — and for how long — is unknown. But the Biden administration is bracing for weeks of uncertainty: Border cities are struggling to manage the influx of migrants, troops have been deployed and political divisions over the country’s outdated, long-broken immigration system are bubbling up.
South of the Border
A group of migrants crosses the Rio Bravo on an inflatable mattress on Tuesday. The public health order known as Title 42 allowed the U.S. to quickly expel many migrants seeking asylum. | Fernando Llano/AP Photo Some people travel through multiple countries and extremely dangerous conditions to try and reach the U.S. The Darien Gap, shown above on Tuesday, is an especially treacherous stretch of jungle along the Colombia-Panama border. | Ivan Valencia/AP Photo Venezuelan migrants take a break during their walk across the Darien Gap. | Ivan Valencia/AP Photo Lily weed is currently covering parts of the Rio Grande, making it more difficult to pass through. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images Some migrants made the journey with their families, including infants and young children. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images; Fernando Llano/AP Photo Texas National Guardsmen hold onto razor wire on the banks of the Rio Grande on Thursday. Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott deployed what he called the “Texas Tactical Border Force” to the border earlier in the week, ahead of the Title 42 expiration. | Fernando Llano/AP Photo Many migrants make the cheap yet dangerous ride north through Mexico on a network of freight trains, known as La Bestia. Shown above, migrants ride atop a train near Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday. | John Moore/Getty Images
At the Fence
In the early hours of Thursday, people continued to arrive at the border, joining the many who had already been camping out. | Andres Leighton/AP Photo Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said there are 24,000 Border Patrol personnel along with thousands of troops and contractors to assist with the situation at the border. | Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Shown above, scenes along the border fence on Thursday. The most recent Customs and Border Protection data cited 206,239 encounters at the southern border in November 2022, a high that hasn’t been matched in over 20 years. | John Moore/Getty Images Some migrants clung to the border fence as they waited for asylum hearings on Thursday, shown above in San Ysidro, Calif. | Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images With Title 42 no longer in effect, the Biden administration plans to expand expedited removal processes under Title 8, the decades-old immigration law that allows for the deportation of anyone unable to establish a legal basis — such as an approved asylum claim. | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images Immigrants seeking asylum wait to board a bus to a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing into Yuma, Ariz. on Thursday. | Mario Tama/Getty Images
North of the Border
A Border Patrol agent watches as migrant families arrive at a processing center in Brownsville, Texas. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Migrants receive pizza from volunteers after being released from a respite center in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo Some encampments that had been full prior to the end of Title 42, like the one shown above near the Sacred Heart Church in El Paso, Texas, became empty and were being cleared as migrants began turning themselves in for processing. | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images A sign posted on a fence at the entrance to a migrant processing center in Brownsville, Texas. Military and local law enforcement members stood along the banks of the Rio Grande in Brownsville to deter people from entering the country. | Michael Gonzalez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images At St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, in El Paso, Texas, faith leaders offered migrants shelter and explained the authorities' newly released conditions for them to apply for asylum. | Giovanna Dell'Orto/AP Photo; Andres Leighton/AP Photo A group of migrants enters Brownsville, Texas on Wednesday, as they walk to a makeshift check-in center. | Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald via AP Many of those that made it to the U.S. this week in seek of refuge escaped violence, poverty, and economic and political instability in Central America. | Gregory Bull/AP Photo
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