EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Hairstylist Grisel Garcés survived a harrowing four-month journey from her native Venezuela, through tropical jungles, migrant detention centers in southern Mexico and then harrowing carriage rides north to the U.S. border .
Now, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande across from El Paso, Texas, she anxiously awaits a U.S. Supreme Court decision on asylum restrictions that are expected to affect her and thousands of other migrants crossing the border for about 1,900 miles (3,100 km) from Texas to California. And he’s doing it while living outdoors as winter temperatures drop across much of the US and across the border.
She said she fled economic hardships only to find other hardships, like now shivering in temperatures colder than anything she’s ever experienced.
“Riding by train was bad. Here the situation is even worse. Surrender to God’s mercy,” said Garcés, who left behind a school-age daughter in hopes of joining the United States with her husband.
Their savings are depleted, some days they don’t eat. And on Thursday, Garcés waited and watched as hundreds of migrants formed a line to gradually pass through a gate in the border fence to be processed by US immigration officials. He fears immediate deportation under current asylum restrictions and dares not cross the shallow waters of the Rio Grande in sight.
Dozens of migrants have spent nights on the concrete banks of the river, awaiting news of possible changes to asylum restrictions imposed in March 2020. In El Paso, sidewalks serve as accommodation in front of a bus stop and a church for some migrants who do not they immediately find a place in an expanding network of shelters supported by the city and religious groups.
The Trump administration-era asylum ban — Title 42 — was given a brief extension by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday. It is unclear when the Supreme Court’s final decision will come. The Biden administration has asked the court to lift the restrictions, but not before Christmas.
Under Title 42, authorities have deported asylum seekers to the United States 2.5 million times and turned away most asylum seekers at the border to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Title 42 applies to all nationalities, but it has most affected people from countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and, more recently, Venezuela.
Immigration advocates are suing to end the use of Title 42. They say the policy runs counter to U.S. and international obligations to people fleeing persecution and is outdated now that treatments for the coronavirus have improved.
Conservative-leaning states appealed to the Supreme Court, warning that increased migration would damage public services and cause an “unprecedented calamity” they fear the federal government has no plan to address.
In El Paso, members of the Texas National Guard took control on state orders, while volunteers and law enforcement officials feared some migrants might succumb to the cold. Overnight temperatures were in the 30s (below 3.8 Celsius) and will be even colder over the next few days.
Elsewhere, hundreds of migrants set up a makeshift camp – with black plastic bags for rough tents – in a park in Matamoros, Mexico, near Brownsville, Texas.
Shaking after his recent deportation from the United States, former Venezuelan Navy SEAL Carlos Hernandez talked about how he, his wife and their 3-year-old daughter recently struggled to cross the cold river only to be pushed back after what reached the other shore.
Hernandez said he fell out with his superiors in Venezuela for refusing orders to crack down on government opponents in the navy. He said he hoped to cross again and eventually make it to Canada.
“It was very cold,” he said of the river crossing.
In Tijuana, Mexico, across the street from San Diego, about 5,000 migrants were staying in more than 30 shelters and renting many rooms and apartments. Razor-topped walls rising 30 feet along the San Diego border make illegal crossings a deterrent.
Francisco Palacios waited for hours with his wife and 3-year-old daughter at a border crossing in the Tijuana area midweek before going to sleep in a hotel. He said the family in the western Mexican city of Morelia is awaiting a court decision on whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that have prevented many from seeking asylum.
“We don’t have a choice,” Palacios said Wednesday, explaining that his family arrived in Tijuana two weeks early to escape the violence and gangs that for years squeezed some of their income selling fruit from a cart .
Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico. Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report from Matamoros, Mexico.
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