Late Tuesday night, shortly after President Biden’s executive order restricting access to asylum took effect, 50 migrants completed a nine-hour journey through the mountains north of Tecate, Mexico.
They stood in a line among the bushes steps from Highway 94 and waited for Border Patrol agents to come pick them up. The group of migrants, which included men, women and children from Cuba, Ecuador, China and Brazil, were exhausted and had nearly run out of food and water.
Many people had not heard of the order, which raises the legal standard for asylum claims and blocks entry for those who cross the border illegally When the average arrests per day are over 2,500.
Lucas Lu, 32, knew about this and was worried that he had arrived too late to seek asylum. He said the rule goes against American values.
“This isn’t fair,” he said, sitting with his legs folded in the mud. “We risked our lives to come here.”
The Chinese former hotel manager had a back brace wrapped around his T-shirt and was leaning on a walking stick. He said he suffered a spinal injury while traveling by boat in Panama. It took him three months to reach the southern border.
Lu said he was fleeing authoritarian repression in search of safety, respect and the ability to speak freely without fear of prison.
Three Sprinter vans and five other vehicles arrived at the scene just after 11pm.
,Thank you“Thank God,” a woman said in the dark.
The agents brought out garbage bags and told the migrants to throw their food and water there. One picked up a loo stick and threw it into the bushes.
“It’s nothing, okay?” he said.
They searched the migrants and loaded them into vans. One agent reported that 45 additional migrants were coming down the hill, as well as groups of 40 and 90 in other areas.
Both before and after the order went into effect at 9 p.m. Pacific time, the night appeared relatively calm overall, and many crossing sites east of San Diego were deserted.
After a surge in migrant arrivals that made San Diego a top border crossing area, arrests have dropped again in recent weeks.
But the daily average of arrests among official ports of entry remains above the 2,500 mark.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said the day began with more than 9,000 people arrested before the order went into effect — on par with the average figure for the past month. The agency did not see a significant increase in the number of migrants arriving before the deadline.
Since then, migrants have been removed in accordance with the order, the official said, but declined to provide figures. The agency is ramping up efforts in the coming weeks to maximize the order’s impact.
Migrants from Mexico can be repatriated quickly, and the Mexican government has previously agreed to accept some migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba. The official acknowledged that it will remain challenging to remove migrants from other countries, such as China, which does not regularly accept deportation flights.
In Tijuana, José García Lara, director of the Moviendo Juventud 2000 shelter, worries the executive order could spark a crisis because the movement of migrants across northern Mexico would be disrupted.
Garcia Lara said the shelter, which has a capacity of 200, used to receive about 60 visitors per day. In recent days, the number has risen to 100.
Garcia Lara said the number of shelters is falling when more people choose to cross the border illegally. The people staying in the shelters are those waiting to meet border agents through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection phone app, which is glitchy and slow.
He remembers the arrival of Haitians in 2016, followed by caravans of Central Americans, and how pandemic-era border rules kept migrants out of the U.S. and crowded Mexican shelters.
Lately, migrants have come not just from the Western Hemisphere but from all over the world — and they will keep coming, he said. “We are used to it,” he said. “What we will do is welcome them.”
Rosario de Leon, 38, from Mexico’s Chiapas state, and her wife, Gracia Cortez, 27, from El Salvador, have waited two months for an appointment. They said they faced discrimination as a gay couple in many places, including Tijuana, and fled extortion by gangs.
Cortez said the new rule makes sense. He said hopefully it means more appointments will be made through the app.
“It’s not fair that someone enters irregularly while others are following the rules,” he said. “We all need to be patient.”
At a trolley station across the border in San Ysidro, Mariela Diaz, 28, waited Tuesday afternoon for her husband’s release from federal custody.
Diaz, from Colombia, charged her phone and heard the news of the executive order.
“I’m an immigrant, but this is something that’s getting out of control,” she said. “I understand the president’s decision.”
She was relieved that she arrived before the order went into effect. Still, she felt sorry for those who arrived too late.
