Uncertainty at US-Mexico border as Title 42 ends, new asylum rules begin
- The United States is putting new restrictions into place at its southern border to try to to stop migrants from crossing illegally
- The changes come with the end of Covid-era restrictions that have allowed the US to quickly turn back migrants
Rules that have allowed US border guards to summarily expel hundreds of thousands of would-be asylum seekers over the last three years expired early Friday, setting up an uncertain future for migrants and inflaming America’s always-churning immigration debate.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to try to cross into the United States over the coming days, hoping to escape the poverty and criminal gangs that wrack their own countries.
For more than three years the 3,200km (2,000-mile) frontier with Mexico has been regulated by Title 42, a health provision designed to keep Covid infections at bay by turning people away before they made a claim for asylum.
But with the formal ending of the Covid emergency, that rule expired at midnight East Coast time – with new restrictions taking its place.
Those new regulations require asylum seekers and other migrants to request entry from outside the country.