WASHINGTON-
The impending overnight end to the COVID-19 public health emergency felt more like a crisis than cause for celebration Thursday, as Homeland Security agents and officials braced for a flood of asylum seekers. on the US-Mexico border.
More than three years after the virus arrived on North American soil, pandemic-era border regulations were due to be lifted at midnight Thursday, ending a tragic and ugly chapter in history and ushering in a new era. uncertain.
Even President Joe Biden had to admit that things on the southern border would be “chaotic for a while” as the public health measure known as Title 42 ushers in a rigid new regime aimed at mitigating a tidal wave of human migration.
“We are a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday.
“Those laws state that if you qualify for humanitarian aid, then you have established a basis for remaining in the United States. If he hasn’t, then he must be expelled, and that’s exactly what will happen.”
Prior to Title 42, imposed in March 2020 by the Trump administration, migrants detained in the US without legal status to be in the country could apply for asylum and were often allowed to stay to await the outcome of an immigration hearing.
However, migrants have since been turned away without the opportunity to apply for asylum on the grounds that allowing them to stay could encourage the spread of the virus.
With Title 42 expiring, the Biden administration is imposing tough new rules that they say deter those seeking to enter the country illegally and create new “legal avenues” for those with legitimate grounds for asylum.
Along the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, tens of thousands of would-be asylum seekers have concentrated for weeks in places like Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana and Reynosa, some after taking matters into their own hands by entering the United States illegally. .
“People who cross our border illegally and without a legal basis to remain will be prosecuted and removed immediately,” Mayorkas said.
They will also be presumed ineligible for asylum, face a re-entry ban of at least five years and ultimately criminal prosecution if caught a second time, it added.
“Smugglers have been hard at work for a long time, spreading false information that the border will be open” after Title 42, Mayorkas said.
“Know this: Smugglers only care about profit, not people. Don’t risk your life and savings, only to be kicked out of the United States when you get here.”
The Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and US Customs and Border Protection have been “sending personnel” to the southern border to deal with the influx, he added, including more than 24,000 agents and Patrol officers. US Border Patrol, as well as thousands of soldiers, contractors, asylum officers, and immigration judges.
The increase also includes approximately 1,400 Homeland Security personnel, 1,000 prosecution coordinators and an additional 1,500 Department of Defense officials. “We are aware of the challenges that we are likely to face in the coming days and weeks,” she said, “and we are ready to meet them.”
It’s a far cry from the scene at the Canada-US border, where the end of the public health emergency means border agents will no longer ask travelers to show proof of their COVID-19 vaccination status. .
But there, too, is more apprehension than euphoria.
Those Border Patrol officers and customs agents heading south had to come from somewhere, said New York Rep. Brian Higgins, the Democratic congressman whose efforts to combat pandemic-era travel restrictions have simmered. turned into a personal crusade.
Whenever the situation on the US-Mexico border demands it, “there is a mandatory movement of Customs and Border Protection agents from the northern border to the southern border,” Higgins said.
“That’s been a problem, not only because it takes resources from the northern border, but a lot of those people end up saying, ‘Fuck it, I can’t move my family to the southern border.'”
Higgins said he’s concerned that if the pattern continues, chronic understaffing at land border crossings could lead to longer delays and apathy from travelers who decide it’s not worth the bother, or who choose to fly instead. of driving.
“The reports I get are that the inspection booths are not occupied,” he said.
“When that’s the case, you have endorsements, and when you have endorsements, people move away from the border. We hope that doesn’t result in a permanent change in economic behavior, but it often does.”
Customs and Border Protection did not say Thursday how many of its agents had been diverted from the northern sectors, but said it does not anticipate any impact on operations at the Canadian border.
In a statement, he said that CBP “will continue to fulfill its core responsibilities to protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity” through trade and travel.
The Canada Border Services Agency declined to comment on Title 42 except to say that the two countries are “working together to respond to the shared challenge of irregular migration, migrant exploitation and forced displacement in the Americas.”
Mayorkas acknowledged that his department needs more resources and a more functional immigration system, and blamed both squarely on Capitol Hill lawmakers.
“We are working within the constraints of a fundamentally broken immigration system, and we are also operating with resources that are far fewer than we need and have requested.”
The Frontier Duty Free Association, which represents the 32 duty-free retailers that operate on the Canadian side of the land border, warned Thursday that sales remain 42% lower on average than before the pandemic.
“We did our part to keep Canadians and Americans safe at the land border,” said association president Tania Lee.
“Now, we need measures to ensure that our businesses can prosper again and the assurance that we will never again face border closures and restrictions of this kind.”