As the U.S. lifted pandemic-era immigration restrictions, the U.S.-Mexico border remained relatively calm. Migrants and government officials are still assessing the effects of new regulations adopted by President Joe Biden's administration in an effort to stabilize the Southwest border region and undercut smugglers. Migrants are now required to apply online or seek protection in the countries they traveled through before seeking asylum in the U.S. Families allowed in as their immigration cases progress will face curfews and GPS monitoring, those expelled can now be barred from reentry for five years and face possible criminal prosecution. The Biden administration's legal pathways consist of a program that permits up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport.
The system could fundamentally alter how migrants come to the southern border. However, Biden faces withering criticism from migrant advocates, who say he's abandoning more humanitarian methods, and from Republicans who claim he's soft on border security. Two legal challenges already loom over the new asylum restrictions.
Title 42 was initiated in March 2020 and allowed border officials to quickly deport asylum seekers to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While Title 42 prevented many from seeking asylum, it carried no legal consequences for expulsion like those under the new rules. In El Paso on Friday, a few dozen migrants lingered outside Sacred Heart Catholic Church and shelter, on streets where nearly 2,000 migrants were camped as recently as Tuesday. Melissa López, executive director for Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services at El Paso, said many migrants have been willing to follow the legal pathway created by the federal government, but there are fears about deportation and possible criminal penalties for crossing the border illegally.
Border holding facilities in the U.S. were already far beyond capacity in the run-up to Title 42's expiration. In Florida, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has temporarily halted the administration’s plans to release people into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it would comply, but called it a “harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding” at migrant processing and detention facilities. Migrant-rights groups also sued the Biden administration on allegations that its new policy is no different than one adopted by Trump and rejected by the same court. The Biden administration says its policy is different and imposes a higher burden of proof to get asylum and pairs restrictions with newly opened legal pathways.