Desperate and bewildered migrants trapped as US border rules change
- A Covid-era provision blocking asylum seekers is expiring, but many of those seeking a better life in the US are stuck in a legal limbo
- Instead of having a better chance of asylum with the end of Title 42, new rules taking its place mean almost all migrants who cross illegally will be denied
Hundreds of migrants from around the world seeking a better life in the United States have instead found themselves trapped in squalid conditions near the Mexican border, tantalisingly close to their destination, and desperate.
On the eve of the expiration of Title 42, the Covid-era provision blocking most asylum seekers from seeking legal entry into the United States, hundreds of migrants have camped out at the border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego.
Some of them have been stuck for nearly a week, hoping to turn themselves in to US Customs and Border Protection officials, but instead are waiting in the open air, stuck in a legal limbo.
“We are very tired and hungry and I have been here for six days,” said Pham Thanh, 28, of Vietnam, speaking through the bollards of a 10-metre (30-foot) border barrier. “President Biden, I’m asking to save us, please,” he said.
Confusion reigns among the migrants – though the expiration of Title 42 once might have offered a better chance for asylum, new rules taking its place will deny asylum to almost all migrants who cross illegally, forcing them to decide whether they have a better shot at life in the US by crossing now or later.