Up to 40,000 migrants amass at border as end of Title 42 nears
Up to 40,000 migrants have amassed on the Mexican side of the border waiting to cross into the US and officials are worried about the chaos they could cause when Title 42 ends next month, law enforcement sources tell The Post.
Migrants in Juarez, Mexico, are getting tired of waiting or being duped by internet scams into thinking they will be given asylum in the US and hundreds a day are again crossing into El Paso and surrendering to border agents.
“We have intel that there’s between 10,000 and 40,000 people waiting to cross over,” a police official who did not want to be named told The Post of the swelling number of migrants amassed directly across the border.
“We know something is coming, and we’re always preparing for what if a couple thousand of those people waiting there just get antsy or they’re like, ‘Today is the day.’”
Over 750 migrants surrendered to Border Patrol agents in one massive group Wednesday afternoon, the US Border Patrol told The Post.
Additional migrant surrenders continued Thursday, with hundreds more people surrendering to border patrol — making the tasks of processing and ejecting them an enormous job for Border Patrol.
Migrant groups as large as 1,000 people have been turning themselves in to officials in Texas’ sixth largest city since late March, fueled by fake information spread on social media by drug cartels, who would prefer them to pay to be smuggled over the border.
“The cartels don’t make any money by migrants sitting around waiting for the CBP One appointment,” another source told The Post, explaining that the CBP One app is the legal way for migrants to claim asylum.
US border officials have also launched a social media campaign to set the record straight.
“Large groups continue to turn themselves in at the border,” tweeted El Paso Border Patrol Chief Anthony Scott Good on Wednesday.
“We want to remind migrants that coming into the US between the ports of entry is illegal and those who do are subject to expulsion or removal.”
When hundreds of people cross over onto American soil at a time, the process of processing and then expelling them takes a few days, during which time they have to be housed and fed.
Due to the sheer numbers, Customs and Border Protection have been flying migrants from El Paso to other areas of the border, such as Laredo and San Diego to process and eject them.
This helps keep Border Patrol facilities in El Paso from being overrun and allows for more migrants to be returned to Mexico.
Migrants who can’t be expelled to Mexico are being deported back to their home country to keep them from attempting to cross into the US again, border sources told The Post.
Frustration is also growing among migrants who came to the border expecting to be allowed into the country, only to find they would not be under Title 42.
Many have spent months in Mexico hoping for change which will let them legally claim asylum — and decide to roll the dice on being among the very few who are allowed to stay in America.
“People are tired of waiting. They don’t have money and things are getting bad in Mexico — so much suffering,” one migrant told local reporter Judith Torrea on Thursday.
Border Patrol officials expect more large groups to “episodically” show up at the border barrier in El Paso until May 11, when Title 42 is expected to end.
The pandemic-area policy put in place by former President Donald Trump, allows the Border Patrol to quickly expel millions of migrants from certain countries to Mexico without allowing them to seek asylum in America.
Currently, Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Hondurans and Mexicans are subject to Title 42.
The Biden administration has proposed a new immigration rule that would require asylum-seekers to apply for protection in any country they travel through before they arrive in the US.
The rule is expected to take effect in May, and to last two years.
With so much confusion and changing laws, frantic migrants could storm any of the city’s multiple international bridges, a situation which has happened twice since March.
US authorities have been forced to shut down the Paso Del Norte Bridge, most recently on Monday.
Customs and Border Protection used concrete barriers, razor wire and a special border SWAT team to keep migrants from pouring over to the US side.
El Paso has been reinforced by hundreds of state troopers and Texas National Guard members Paso since December when the city declared a state of emergency over the border crisis.
Some desperate migrants have started turning to criminal smugglers to get past the beefed up security and sneak across the border — going through dangerous sewage tunnels, hiking through border mountains or climbing over the 9-foot border barrier.
Those who successfully make it face even more peril in the hands of cartels — who often lock migrants in stifling vehicles, keep them inside stash houses in “deplorable conditions,” or get them caught up in sometimes deadly car chases with police.
“We’re expecting more deaths related to human smuggling,” the law enforcement source added.
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