Migrants at US-Mexico border await ruling on asylum limits

EL PASO, Texas -- Francisco Palacios waited for four hours with his wife and 3-year-old daughter at a border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego early Wednesday before going to a nearby hotel for a three-hour nap. They came back, bags packed, only to be disappointed again.

But the family from the western Mexican city of Morelia is prepared to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that have prevented many from seeking asylum, said Palacios.

"We don't have a choice," Palacios said in Spanish, explaining that his family arrived in Tijuana two weeks ago to escape violence and gangs that extorted them for years for a chunk of their income selling fruit from a street cart.

They're among thousands of migrants gathered along the Mexican side of the border, camping outside or packing into shelters as the weather grows colder.

The limits on border crossings had been set to expire Wednesday before conservative-leaning states sought the top court's help to keep them in place. The Biden administration asked the court to lift the restrictions, but not before Christmas. It's not clear when the court's decision will come.

Migrants approach the border wall in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday, Dec. 21, on the other side of the border from El Paso, Texas. Migrants gathered along the Mexican side of the southern border Wednesday as they waited for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that have prevented many from seeking asylum.Christian Chavez ~ Associated Press

Texas National Guard members took up positions in El Paso at the behest of the state, while volunteers and law enforcement officers worried that some migrants could succumb to the cold. Nighttime temperatures have been in the 30s and will be even colder in coming days. The Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso, where nighttime temperatures could drop into the 20s this week, planned to open two more shelters for up to 1,000 people at area churches.

In downtown El Paso, sidewalks near a bus station served as living quarters for dozens of families and clusters of men who recently arrived from Latin American countries including Venezuela and Colombia.

Junior Carmona, a 22-year-old musician and hairstylist from Venezuela, waited Wednesday to board a bus to Dallas to be reunited with relatives including his mother. His journey to the U.S. lasted six months while he was robbed and detained three times by Mexican immigration authorities. Camona said he couldn't bear another setback and entered the U.S. without first requesting asylum, while he saw many Venezuelans wait in Mexico to see if Title 42 restrictions would be lifted.

"There are many who resign themselves to seeing if the doors will open," he said. "In Mexico, there are many cartels. ... it's much more safe to be here illegally than be legal over there."

On the southern side of the Rio Grande, Jhorman Morey, a 38-year-old mechanic from Venezuela, warmed his hands by a campfire with a half-dozen other migrants. Morey was among those waiting for a decision on the restrictions before attempting to cross into the U.S. Some slept along the concrete embankments of the river.

"I want them to decide" on the public health rule known as Title 42, said Morey, who arrived six weeks ago in the Mexican city of Juarez, across the border from El Paso. He now rarely eats after exhausting his savings.

In Tijuana, an estimated 5,000 migrants were staying in more than 30 shelters and many more renting rooms and apartments. Layered, razor-topped walls rising 30 feet along the border with San Diego make the area daunting for illegal crossings.

Under the restrictions, officials have expelled asylum-seekers inside the United States 2.5 million times, and turned away most people who requested asylum at the border, on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Immigration advocates have said the restrictions go against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution, and that the pretext is outdated as coronavirus treatments improve. They sued to end the use of Title 42; a federal judge sided with them in November and set the Dec. 21 deadline.

Conservative-leaning states appealed to the Supreme Court, warning that an increase in migration would take a toll on public services and cause an "unprecedented calamity" that they said the federal government had no plan to deal with.

In response, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a temporary order to keep the restrictions in place.

The federal government then asked the Supreme Court to reject the states' effort while also acknowledging that ending the restrictions abruptly will likely lead to "disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings."

States filed a response early Wednesday, arguing that letting the restrictions expire while the court reviews the lower court decision would cause "immediate, severe, and irreversible harms" to the states.

Though the Wednesday expiration date was set weeks ago, the U.S. government asked for more time to prepare -- while saying that it has sent more resources to the border and maintaining that the solution is not to extend the rule indefinitely.

About 23,000 agents are deployed to the southern border, according to the White House. The Biden administration said it has sent more Border Patrol processing coordinators and more surveillance and has increased security at ports of entry.

Should the Supreme Court act before Friday, the government wants the restrictions in place until the end of Dec. 27. If the court acts on Friday or later, the government wants the limits to remain until the second business day following such an order.

Title 42 allows the government to expel asylum-seekers of all nationalities, but it's disproportionately affected people from countries whose citizens Mexico has agreed to take: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and, more recently, Venezuela, in addition to Mexico.

Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C., Juan Lozano in Houston, Alicia Fernandez in Ciudad Juarez and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed to this report.