The United States is preparing for a potentially “chaotic” with the lifting, this Thursday, May 11 at 11:59 p.m., of a measure locking access to their territory since the start of the pandemic, a change that sows rumors and confusion among the thousands of migrants waiting at the border with Mexico .
Will there be an influx? Faced with the Republicans who overwhelm him and demand that this measure be maintained, the « Titre 42 »the government of Democrat Joe Biden repeats tirelessly that “the border is not open” and that the authorities have adopted new restrictions on the right to asylum.
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“I want to be very clear: our border is not wide open. People crossing our border illegally and without a legal basis to stay will be immediately (…) expelled”repeated the Minister of Internal Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, during a press conference.
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More “Even after two years of preparations, we expect to see large numbers of arrivals at our southern border in the days and weeks following May 11”he admitted, while President Biden himself asserted that the situation would be “chaotic for a while”.
2.8 million migrants turned back in three years
This Thursday, in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, migrants crossed the border sporadically in groups of 20, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. To prepare, the Federal State has mobilized “more than 24,000 agents and law enforcement” at the border, in addition to 4,000 soldiers.
The lifting of « Titre 42 » is scheduled for 11:59 p.m. Washington time (Friday at 5:59 a.m. in France), but some migrants are rushing to cross the border before this deadline to apply for asylum, for fear that the change in rules will prevent them from do it for five years. The authorities are already observing “a high number of arrivals in certain sectors”according to Alexander Mayorkas.
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The « Titre 42 », supposed to limit the spread of Covid-19, gave the American authorities the possibility of immediately turning back all migrants entering the country, including asylum seekers. In three years, it has been used 2.8 million times. New asylum restrictions, finalized by the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, will go into effect Thursday evening.
A mandatory appointment on a phone application
Before presenting themselves at the border, asylum seekers, with the exception of unaccompanied minors, must now have obtained an appointment on a telephone application set up by border guards, or have been refused access. asylum in one of the countries crossed during their migratory journey.
Otherwise, their request will be presumed illegitimate and they may be subject to an accelerated deportation procedure, prohibiting them from entering American soil for five years.
Faced with changing migration patterns, rumors spread by smugglers and a complex online procedure, the migrants who pile up in northern Mexico bear witness to a puzzle.
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“It’s a nightmare, a real torture”
L’application « CBP One »designed to centralize asylum requests in the United States, is at the heart of the frustrations of migrants at the border, where telephones, wifi and electricity are a luxury.
Due to its frequent bugs, “It’s a nightmare, a real torture. This app undermines us emotionally and psychologically”says Juan Pavon, a trader who fled Venezuela with his family, while his 14-year-old daughter Ana Paola cries bitterly: an app update erased all her data.
Migrants come mainly from Latin America but also from China, Russia or Turkey. Met in downtown El Paso, where an NGO distributes food to the few people present, Luis Rodriguez, 24, from Venezuela, explains that he does not have enough money to pay for transport to Washington. , where he wants to join friends. “I go to the hairdresser to see if they let me work” to collect the sum, he said.
The difficult political balance of the Democrats
The Democratic executive is keen, on the burning subject of immigration, to display a balanced policy, while the Republicans accuse Joe Biden, new candidate for 2024, of having transformed the border into a “colander”.
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Biden-Trump: the return match that no one wants
So for former Republican President Donald Trump, this Thursday will be “a day of infamy”. “You are going to have millions of people flocking to our country”he launched Wednesday on CNN.
In order to encourage legal channels of immigration, Washington has planned to eventually open a hundred centers abroad to study the files on the spot. The first are planned in Colombia and Guatemala.
