As debate over U.S. immigration policy heats up during the 2024 presidential campaign, separating fact from fiction on the U.S.-Mexico border becomes increasingly difficult.
In May 2023, shortly after the end of a public health restriction that allowed U.S. officials to immediately expel asylum-seekers, a team of academic and humanitarian aide colleagues and I went to the Mexican city of Matamoros, just across the Rio Grande from the banks of Brownsville, Texas.
At the time, we didn’t encounter the “invasion at the border” that conservative lawmakers such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted would happen once the COVID-19 restrictions – officially known as Title 42 – expired.
From what we learned, the actual rush of thousands of people across the border occurred in the days before Title 42 was lifted on May 11, 2023. Many migrants told us they saw it as their last chance to cross the U.S. border.
Most people we talked to were waiting in overcrowded, temporary camps in Mexico. They feared that if they tried to cross into the U.S., they would lose their opportunity to seek asylum and would be deported under restrictive polices unveiled during the Biden administration.
The situation at the border has constantly changed ever since. But the brief period when Title 42 ended is a perfect illustration of the differences between right-wing hysteria and the realities on the ground.
The evolution of US border policy
Since the fall of 2019, I have been working at the Mexican border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros – across from McAllen and Brownsville, Texas. That year, the Trump administration had started the Migrant Protection Protocols.
Known as “Remain in Mexico,” the restrictive policy ended the possibility of asylum for about 70,000 migrants, mostly from Central America. Instead, they were forced to wait in Mexico with little realistic chance of being able to legally enter and stay in the U.S. Anyone who entered the country illegally was deported immediately and barred from applying for asylum for five years.
The border became even more restrictive during the COVID-19 pandemic when Title 42 was implemented in March 2020. It limited entry into the U.S. at the border to U.S citizens and residents.
Traditional ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border were closed to asylum-seekers in order to prevent the spread of COVID. For example, those who came to the ports of entry at the international bridges in Reynosa or Matamoros would be turned back at the halfway point and not allowed to touch U.S. soil.
As a result, most of the people whom we talked to in 2023 were waiting in Mexico and fearful.
Inside the asylum camps
Throughout 2020 and 2021, my academic and nonprofit colleagues witnessed migrants toiling in squalid, makeshift camps.
One of the first asylum camps was formed during the last days of the Trump administration across from Brownsville, Texas, in Matamoros, Mexico. The Mexican government allowed faith-based organizations and nongovernment organizations such as Team Brownsville and Solidarity Engineering to bring in tents, food, water and other supplies.
Before long, thousands of individuals – primarily from Central America – were sleeping on the streets next to the international bridge that connected the town to Brownsville.
At one point, the camp had about 3,000 people living in it. There were only two portable toilets.
As debate over U.S. immigration policy heats up during the 2024 presidential campaign, separating fact from fiction on the U.S.-Mexico border becomes increasingly difficult.
In May 2023, shortly after the end of a public health restriction that allowed U.S. officials to immediately expel asylum-seekers, a team of academic and humanitarian aide colleagues and I went to the Mexican city of Matamoros, just across the Rio Grande from the banks of Brownsville, Texas.
At the time, we didn’t encounter the “invasion at the border” that conservative lawmakers such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted would happen once the COVID-19 restrictions – officially known as Title 42 – expired.
From what we learned, the actual rush of thousands of people across the border occurred in the days before Title 42 was lifted on May 11, 2023. Many migrants told us they saw it as their last chance to cross the U.S. border.
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