As the solar rose on Friday morning, Antonio, 51, was gathering his issues and saying his goodbyes at a big migrant shelter on the outskirts of Tijuana.
Since 2020, Title 42, a public well being measure carried out throughout the pandemic, has allowed border authorities to swiftly expel migrants who crossed into the United States illegally. A surge of arriving migrants and a restricted variety of asylum appointments has led to giant numbers of individuals ready in border communities like Tijuana.
On Friday, Antonio’s household was a part of the primary group of asylum seekers processed after Title 42 expired the day earlier than.
The household began making an attempt to schedule an appointment two and a half years in the past. The appointment was lastly secured after months of makes an attempt on CBP One, a smartphone app developed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Many migrants whom The Times spoke with described the app as glitchy and exhausting to make use of.
On any given day, round 1,600 migrants stay collectively on the shelter facility, sleeping facet by facet on a sea of mats, mattresses and bunk beds. Many like Antonio are internally displaced Mexicans fleeing the rising presence of cartels in southwestern states like Guerrero and Michoacán.
“In Michoacán, it is very hard to live peacefully,” Antonio mentioned in Spanish. “You walk down the street and suddenly you’re in the middle of a shooting.”
The household got here to Tijuana in 2020 to hunt asylum after Antonio’s 16-year-old son was kidnapped by gang members and held for ransom. After Antonio’s brother was additionally kidnapped, the household determined to flee. His brother has now been lacking for 3 years.
The household waited in line nervously on Friday morning with round 100 migrants who had additionally obtained appointments that day.
“I’m happy because this is the culmination of a process we began a long time ago,” Antonio mentioned minutes earlier than coming into. “Now the fear is that we don’t know what happens next.”
Aline Corpus contributed reporting. Axel Boada contributed video modifying.
Source: www.nytimes.com