Washington (EFE).- The United States affirmed that it has not detected a substantial increase in migrant crossings across the border with Mexico in the first hours since the lifting of Title 42, the hot expulsion policy used under the pretext of the covid-19 pandemic.
The Undersecretary for Border Policy and Immigration of the Department of Homeland Security, Blas Núñez-Neto, however, admitted at a press conference that it is still too early to offer official figures and assured that the authorities remain vigilant to any event that occurs on the border.
“We can affirm that we have not seen any substantial increase in migration this morning,” explained the official, who nevertheless said that arrests in the area remain “high.”
After the end of the health emergency last midnight, the United States stopped applying Title 42, which allowed undocumented migrants to be expelled without the possibility of requesting asylum due to the pandemic, but it established other restrictions at the border and began to deport through another regulation known as Title 8.
Changes to the asylum application
Núñez-Neto warned that from now on all those people who cross the border without a regular immigration status “will not be eligible for asylum.” They will be quickly removed from the country and may be banned from entering the United States for five years.
At least 24,000 border patrol agents monitor the area. In addition to the 1,500 soldiers that the Pentagon will be deploying in stages over the next few days.
The official explained that with the lifting of the health emergency, the authorities are no longer obliged to test all migrants for covid, so that the arrests will be made “much faster.”
Núñez-Neto once again asked the migrants to seek legal ways to enter the United States. And that they “don’t listen to the lies” of the human traffickers who put “their lives in danger” by promising them help to cross the border.
The migration official assured that the number of appointments available to request asylum online has risen to 1,000 daily. And he encouraged to use this procedure.
humanitarian permit
He also recalled that Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians can request a humanitarian permit to enter the United States through the Internet if they have a sponsor in that country.
Those people of these nationalities who cross the border without permission will be automatically deported to Mexico, instead of their countries.
“We will continue to carefully monitor the situation on the ground, including arrests and space in our detention centers,” he said.
For his part, Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said that the flow of migrants has been “going down” in recent hours. And that there have been “no confrontations or situations of violence on the border.”
On the main border cities, the Mexican authorities register 10,000 migrants in Ciudad Juárez. 5,500 in Matamoros and 500 in Tijuana who intend to cross into the United States.