At night, on the asphalt of Brownsville, Texas, migrants look for a comfortable place to spend the night. They have crossed the border from Mexico, ahead of an announced change in US regulations that could complicate those who come after.
“We were very afraid because they say that after May 11 they will not let you pass,” explains Dasling Sánchez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan. “We launched first because we did not have the financial resources to stay” in Mexico and “for fear of being deported.”
He waited for several days in Matamoros, Mexico, for his opportunity. She now rests on some cardboard with her two children next to a gas station in Brownsville, a quiet border city that has recently been swarmed with hundreds of migrants.
The United States will end Title 42 on Thursday. Measure inherited from the period of Trump which, since the pandemic, allows authorities to deport or reject migrants without even accepting their asylum applications.
Although its repeal raises fears of an increase in irregular entry through the southern United States, there are those who think that it could rather complicate it.
At the moment, hundreds of people arrive by bus in Brownsville; after turning themselves in, days before, to the border patrol, which held them and processed them in a detention center.
Increase in the crossing of migrants through Texas
After receiving an average of 100 migrants per day since the beginning of the year, in the last two weeks “the numbers are regularly between 700 to 1,000 people per day.” This is how Mayra Paredes, a volunteer from the humanitarian organization Team Brownsville, tells them, which supports them with clothing and food.
They walk in groups and on foot in a city where most use cars. And, although many are from Venezuela, there are also Colombians, Central Americans and Asians. A similar scenario is experienced in cities like El Paso.
Mostly, every day, women arrive at Eagle Pass (farther north). And then they are transferred to Brownsville to be reunited with their loved ones.
Some say they proved they had a US-resident “sponsor” to enter. Others say that they entered while their asylum application is being reviewed by a judge.
Still aimlessly or while waiting for a relative, dozens spend the night around the La Plaza bus station, in the center of the city. The shelters are not enough.
And after having defeated the jungle and crime during his pilgrimage through at least half a dozen Latin American countries, the dangers continue on US soil.
On Sunday eight people, most of them migrants, died after being hit by a vehicle near a shelter. One of the survivors said that, before hitting them, the driver insulted them, although the police are investigating whether it was intentional.
Title 42 and Title 8: “You are left with nothing”
Several migrants believe that Title 42 was not so harmful because, under its protection, what the border authorities did was expel them back to Mexico; from where they could try to cross multiple times.
On the other hand, Title 8 remains in force. A measure that, although it allows processing asylum applications, also accelerates expulsions, deports or prevents future entry of someone who first tried to enter irregularly.
«Yes, it scared me a little because when Title 42 ended, they already make you a direct deportation, and you launched all that journey, you sold all your things, you are left with nothing. That scared me,” says Venezuelan Leandro Ruiz, 28.
While Leandro waits for his wife to be released, Dasling waits for one of his brothers who lives in Los Angeles to deposit the money to buy the tickets that will allow them to meet again.
While waiting, she and her two children eat some pizza that a Catholic organization brought them.
The Biden government and the difficult circumstance
The Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who recently toured several points along the border, admitted the difficult circumstances.
The government of Democrat Joe Biden, whom Republicans blame for being lax with immigration, will send 1,500 soldiers to the border for control work.
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas and a critic of Biden, has said that 150,000 troops are needed. He often sends migrant buses to states run by Democrats.
While talking on WhatsApp before going to sleep, José Luis Aular, a 38-year-old Venezuelan, says that “migration will always exist. Whatever you put on it, it hinders, whatever you put on it is always going to be there.”
Meanwhile, despite the fact that tonight he will rest next to the stairs of a parking lot, his compatriot Luis Ibáñez, 23, has his goals clear. “We come to work, not to be a burden on the United States,” he asserted.