By Morgan Lee, Giovanna Dell’Orto and Rebecca Santana | Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas — Tensions remained high at the US-Mexico border on Tuesday amid uncertainty over the future of restrictions on asylum seekers, with the Biden administration asking the Supreme Court not to lift the limits before Christmas.
The US government made its case in an application a day after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order to maintain limits on pandemic-era migrants. Before Roberts issued that order, the restrictions were due to expire on Wednesday.
The federal government acknowledged that ending the restrictions is likely to lead to “disruption and a temporary increase in illegal border crossings”. But the government asked the court to reject attempts by a group of conservative-leaning states to uphold a measure that would allow officials to deport many but not all asylum seekers.
Migrants have been denied the right to seek asylum under U.S. and international law 2.5 million times since March 2020 on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19 under a public health rule called Title 42.
With the decision on what comes next, pressure is mounting in communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
In El Paso, Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser warned that cross-border shelters in Ciudad Juárez were packed with an estimated 20,000 migrants willing to enter the US
The city raced to expand its capacity to accommodate more migrants by converting large buildings into shelters, while the Red Cross is bringing in 10,000 baby cots. Local officials also hope to ease pressure on area shelters by chartering buses to other major cities in Texas or nearby states, bringing migrants one step closer to relatives and sponsors in partnership with nonprofits.
“We will remain prepared for whatever is coming,” Leeser said.
Members of the Texas National Guard, sent to El Paso this week by the state, used barbed wire on Tuesday to cordon off a hole in the border fence along a bank of the Rio Grande, which has become a popular crossing point in recent days for migrants wading through shallow waters to approach immigration officials. They used a loudspeaker to announce in Spanish that it is illegal to cross there.
Texas said it sent 400 National Guard personnel to the border town after local officials declared a state of emergency. Leeser said the statement was largely focused on protecting vulnerable migrants, while the deployment included troops used to “repel and return illegal immigrants,” according to a Texas National Guard statement.
Conservative-leaning states argued in their last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court that an increasing number of migrants would take a toll on public services such as law enforcement and health care and warned of an “unprecedented disaster” on the southern border.
The federal government told the court on Tuesday that it is sending more resources to the southern border in preparation for the end of Title 42. That includes more border patrol processing coordinators, increased oversight and increased security at entry, according to President Joe’s administration. Biden. .
About 23,000 agents are currently deployed to the southern border, according to the White House.
“The administration is in no way attempting to downplay the seriousness of that problem,” the Biden administration wrote in its filing with the Supreme Court. “But the solution to that immigration problem cannot be to extend indefinitely a public health measure that everyone now recognizes has outlived its public health justification.”
Still, the government has also asked the court to give it some time to prepare if it decides to lift the restrictions. If the Supreme Court does anything before Friday, the government wants the restrictions to apply until the end of December 27. If the court does anything on Friday or later, the government wants the limits to remain in place until the second business day after such an order. Both timelines – if granted – would mean Title 42 would be in effect until after Christmas.
States seeking to enforce the restrictions argued in their last-minute Supreme Court appeal that the federal government has no plan to deal with an increase in migrants — while in Washington, Republicans are poised to seize control of the House and make immigration a key issue.
Immigration advocates have said the Title 42 restrictions, imposed under provisions of a 1944 health law, go against U.S. and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution — and that the pretense has become obsolete as the improving coronavirus treatments. They filed a lawsuit to end the use of Title 42; a federal judge in November sided with them and set the December 21 deadline.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups pushing for an end to the use of Title 42 told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that maintaining the restrictions risks causing “further harm to non-citizens.” Like the government, they had faulted the states’ timing, saying they had waited too long to try to intervene and that their delay threatened “disruption”.
At a church-affiliated shelter in El Paso a few blocks from the border, Rev. Michael Gallagher said local faith leaders have been trying to pool resources and open empty space. On Tuesday, a gym at Sacred Heart Church housed 200 migrants — mostly women and children.
Outside the church, Jose Natera, a 48-year-old handyman from the Venezuelan city of Guaicaipuro, said Monday he had traveled for three months to reach El Paso, sometimes on foot, with no money or sponsors to take him further.
“I have to stop here until I can get a ticket,” he said.
El Paso Roman Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz expressed concern that the delay in lifting borders would deter migrants fleeing their homes from even pleading for protection in the US after years of pent-up need .
“Now what happens to all those on the way?” he said.
Title 42 restrictions apply to all nationalities, but have dropped disproportionately for those of countries Mexico has agreed to take back: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and, more recently, Venezuela, in addition to Mexico.
Santana reported from Washington, D.C. Juan Lozano in Houston and Alicia Fernández in Ciudad Juárez contributed to this report.