The number of migrants intercepted by the US authorities at the border with Mexico was reduced by half after the end of a rule adopted during the covid-19 pandemic, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said on Sunday, May 14.
Text: RFI / AFP
“In the last two days, the United States border patrol recorded a 50% drop in the number of encounters compared to what we experienced earlier in the week,” Alejandro Mayorkas told the CNN program “State of the Union.” ».
According to the official, around 6,300 migrants crossed the border with Mexico on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday, numbers he described as “remarkably low” compared to the 10,000 daily crossings recorded earlier in the week.
But he stressed that “it is still early” to make diagnoses. “We are only on the third day,” he said, referring to the lifting of the mechanism called “Title 42,” Mayorkas added, avoiding any triumphalism.
Title 42, the rule that expired on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. in Washington, allowed the immediate expulsion of migrants without a visa or documentation, including asylum seekers, in the name of the health emergency.
To prevent the massive influx of migrants after his uprising, the government of Democratic President Joe Biden deployed thousands of police and military in the almost 3,200 km that separate the United States and Mexico, and approved new restrictions on the right to asylum.
Later Sunday, Biden said the 42nd title outing is going “a lot better than everyone expected,” he told reporters during a bike ride near his home in Rehoboth, Delaware.
But he warned that there is “a lot more work to do” and withdrew his call for “more help from Congress.”
*Read also: NGOs criticize the US “outsourcing” its border and warn that this does not stop migrants
The Democratic president indicated that he has no “short-term” plans to visit the southern border. “It would be disturbing,” he said.
Before appearing at the border, migrants must previously obtain an appointment through a mobile application for the centralization of asylum applications, CBP One, or their asylum application must have been rejected in one of the transit countries.
Otherwise, they may be subject to expedited deportation proceedings to their home countries and a five-year ban on entry to US territory.
“We are implementing our plan exactly as we planned it,” Mayorkas told ABC. “We have already expelled thousands of migrants: if they try to return, they will face a five-year ban and possible criminal prosecution,” he stressed.
Republican Congressman Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, disputed the figures.
“This week has seen more crossings than any other week in our history,” he told CNN. She attributed it to an increase in the number of people who crossed the border before Title 42 expired.
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