Fabiola Yépez, a 20-year-old Venezuelan mother, was sheltering under a bridge in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, with her young son when she first learned of President Biden’s new executive order restricting asylum seekers.
Despite seeing U.S. soldiers across the border fire non-lethal projectiles at migrants the day before, she planned to try to cross into the United States on Wednesday, just hours after the order went into effect.
“Maybe it’s not what they say and they won’t make us back down,” Yépez said. “I’m scared, especially with my son in my arms.”
In the wake of the new order, migrants scattered along the U.S.-Mexico border are trying to understand how they will be affected by the measure, the most restrictive border policy instituted by Biden. The directive allows the United States to temporarily close the border to asylum seekers when the seven-day average of daily illegal crossings reaches 2,500.
In some places along the border on Wednesday, there appeared to be confusion over whether the order had technically gone into effect and whether border agents should enforce it. Shelter operators and aid workers in Mexico were also struggling to understand its implications.
Juan Fierro García, director of El Buen Samaritano, a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez, just across the border from El Paso, said the new policy could put further pressure on his operation and other local shelters if large numbers of the immigrants are rejected.
He noted that there are currently relatively few migrants in the city, reflecting a sharp decline since the beginning of the year, as a result of Mexico’s increased enforcement measures to transport people from the border to other parts of the country.
Fierro García said the occupants of his shelter were largely families who had been waiting for months for an interview with U.S. immigration officials through CBP One, an app used to schedule asylum appointments. But although the shelter only housed 55 people in a space intended for 280, Fierro García said food was running out.
“We don’t have the supplies needed right now to take in more people,” he said.
Some people were still entering the United States Wednesday morning, reflecting limited exceptions to the new restrictions, including for minors crossing the border alone, victims of human trafficking and those using the CBP One app. clear whether the executive action was going to be applied immediately.
In Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, California, more than a dozen migrants, who appeared to be from Haiti and had appointments with CBP One, were allowed to cross into the United States on Wednesday morning. Others, however, were denied entry.
Georgina Esquivel, 40, a food vendor from Morelos state in Mexico, said she had not heard of Biden’s order. Hoping to apply for asylum in the United States without an appointment with CBP One, Esquivel said she and her 10-year-old daughter Maria were turned away by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
“I’m going to stay here,” Esquivel said. “I don’t even know what to do yet. “I don’t want to return to Morelos and I don’t want to stay in Mexicali either.”
At an open-air detention site, located between two walls separating the United States and Mexico in the Tijuana River Valley in San Diego, dozens of migrants who had crossed the border on Wednesday gathered and waited for the Border Patrol to pick them up. collected for processing.
“I would say it’s business as usual,” said Pedro Ríos, director of the American Friends Service Committee, a nonprofit that helps immigrants and provides them with food and water. The only change, he said, was that fewer people seemed to be crossing Wednesday compared to previous days.
In El Paso, shelter operators said it may be too early to see a concrete effect of the order.
“We’re going to have to give it a chance to evolve,” said Rubén García, director of Annunciation House, a nonprofit shelter system. “You are talking about an order that will have logistical implementation aspects. “So we’re going to have to give them the opportunity to see how that’s actually done.”
Garcia also emphasized that the number of migrants at the border waiting to cross is extremely low compared to previous years, making it less likely that the order will have a major impact.
Mexican immigration experts say Biden’s executive order is concerning and could put asylum seekers at risk.
“I see echoes of mechanisms that have been tried in the past,” said Rafael Velásquez García, Mexico director of the International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s leading refugee assistance organizations. He noted that previous actions, such as Title 42, have failed to reduce the demand for asylum, improve Mexico’s ability to receive immigrants, or allocate resources to increase opportunities within Mexico.
“I don’t see the point of this,” he added. “It just doesn’t work.”
In any case, Mexico would be the most affected by the measure, analysts say. Immigration authorities would likely have to deal with people sent back across the border, detaining them and busing them to distant states in an effort to wear them down, said Eunice Rendón, coordinator of Agenda Migrante, a coalition of Mexican advocacy groups. .
“The flow would not be safe or orderly,” Rendón said. “It’s the opposite of what you want migration to be.”
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday denied that the executive action would create problems for Mexican officials, saying his administration was helping the United States reach agreements with other countries to deport migrants directly. It was unclear which countries he was referring to or how this would happen.
Some migrants who managed to cross into the United States in recent days were surprised by their luck.
José Luis Posada, 23, of El Salvador, said he had crossed near Tijuana on Monday by climbing a border wall. He was released Wednesday by Border Patrol agents at a public transportation stop in San Diego.
“It’s a miracle,” Posada said of the timing. On Wednesday he found out about Biden’s new executive order.
“God knows what He is doing and here we are,” he said.
Aline Corpus contributed reporting from Mexicali, Mexico, jonathan wolf from san diego and Kings Mata III from ElPaso.