Eagle Pass, Texas (AP) — Approximately 120 Cubans, Colombians, and Venezuelans walking in waist-deep water in the sunset over the Rio Grande river set foot on a border patrol vehicle. I stepped in. ..
Beyond the border of the Mexican town of Piedras Negras, the Honduras family gathered in the downtown section with cracked sidewalks, narrow streets, and a few people as the city’s only shelter was full.
The opposite fate, known as Title 42, demonstrates the dual nature of US border enforcement under the Pandemic Rule, named after the Public Health Act of 1944.President Joe Biden wanted to end these rules on Monday, but a federal judge in Louisiana said. National injunction It keeps them intact.
The U.S. Government has banned immigrants more than 1.9 million times under Title 42 and has denied the opportunity to seek asylum as permitted by U.S. law and international treaties to prevent the spread of COVID-19. ..
But title 42 does not apply evenly Beyond nationality. For example, Mexico has agreed to regain immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. However, for other nationalities, high costs, poor diplomatic relations, and other considerations make it difficult for the United States to fly immigrants to their home country under Title 42. Instead, they are usually released in the United States to seek asylum or other forms of legal status. ..
The Hondurans of Piedras Negras ask the Cubans who arrive at the bus stop for money, knowing that the Cubans cannot use the pesos because the Cubans go directly across the border. Mexico agreed in April to take Cubans and Nicaraguans exiled in Title 42, but the majority were released in the United States.
“It was out,” said 20-year-old Javier Fentes about his one-night stay in a rental home in Piedras Negras. On Sunday morning, he and two other Cuban men crossed the Rio Grande on a paved road until immigrants found a border patrol vehicle at the Eagle Pass, a Texas town of 25,000 people crossing the river to the edge of the river. I walked for about an hour. Public golf course.
The overnight rain raised the water to almost neck level for most adults. This could explain the lack of dozens or even more than 100 groups visiting the area frequently for days.
“The morning starts late,” said a border patrol agent, who stuffed four Peruvians, including a seven-month-old boy, who crossed his parents after cramming into a rented room in Piedras Negras with 17 immigrants for a few days. I greeted the guards watching.
When the water fell to waist level again, about three dozen immigrants gathered in the riverside park, as well as the locals of Piedras Negras, the birthplace of Nachos. Infants migrated primarily to the Honduras crowd. One of the women in Honduras was 8 months pregnant with obvious pain.
Eagle Pass, a vast town of warehouses and corrupt homes overlooked by many major retailers, is the busiest in the Del Rio sector of border patrols, including about 250 miles (400 km) of the sparsely populated riverfront. It is one of the spots. Last year, about 15,000 immigrants, mostly Haitians, gathered in nearby Del Rio, not much larger than the Eagle Pass. Grain fields are almost everything that separates either town from San Antonio and is about a three-hour drive.
It’s relatively easy to cross — immigrants cross the river within minutes. In many cases you do not have to pay smugglers — and the perception that it is relatively safe on the Mexican side has made remote areas the main migration route.
The Rio Grande Valley of Texas has long been the busiest of the nine border patrol sectors on the Mexican border, but Del Rio has soared to second place this year. Yuma, Arizona Another spot, known for being relatively safe and easy to cross, is the third busiest.
Del Rio and Yuma are ranked 6th and 7th in the number of agents among the nine sectors. Border patrol staff The shift in the migration flow has been delayed for a long time.
Other parts of the border have less patrols than Del Rio, a plus for migrants trying to escape capture, but more robust and remote, John Anfin, chairman of the Del Rio Sector branch of the National Border Patrol Council. Sen says.
Anfinsen calls the Del Rio sector a “kind of happy medium” for migrants seeking to balance the attractiveness and security of remote areas.
Christian Sargado, who sleeps on the streets of Piedras Negras with his wife and five-year-old son after fleeing Honduras, said the Mexican border town was “one of the few places to live more or less peacefully.”
But his excitement for the Biden administration’s plan to lift Title 42 on Monday disappeared in a judge’s decision. “I have no hope now,” he said.
His pessimism may be a little misguided. The Hondurans stopped nearly 16,000 times at the border in April, slightly surpassing the expulsion under Title 42. The rest can seek asylum in the United States if they express fear of returning home.
But the Cubans did well Much better. They were suspended more than 35,000 times in April, and only 451 or 1% were processed in Title 42.
“Cubans invade automatically,” said Joel Gonzalez, 34, of Honduras. The agent exiled him, he said the United States was no longer available.
The 45-year-old Isis Peña declined an offer to cross the river from a woman in Honduras. She said she was released when the woman called from San Antonio and she wasn’t even asked if she would apply for asylum. She is a woman currently living in New York.
The next day, Penha tried to cross herself in an experience she didn’t want to repeat for fear of drowning. After being detained for about four hours, her agent told her, “There is no asylum in Honduras.”