Migrants Surging to the Border ‘Pray to God’ for End of Title 42

Thousands of migrants have arrived at the northern Mexican border in recent days in hopes of crossing into the U.S. legally, driven by word that the Biden administration will end a Trump-era policy prohibiting their entry into the U.S. 

The scene is playing out across the border. In Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, roughly 1,000 migrants have recently set up camp along the shore of the Rio Grande River in hopes of entering the U.S., according to immigrant-rights activists. 

In Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas, at least 20,000 mostly Venezuelan migrants are waiting for the policy’s end and a caravan of more than a thousand arrived in mid December. In Tijuana around 9,000 migrants are waiting, according to the city’s municipal director of migrant care, up from an estimated 6,000 in November. 

Many of those arriving are new to Mexico’s border cities. They join thousands of others who have been waiting in camps, shelters and cheap accommodations for a year or longer waiting to legally gain entry to the U.S.