Midnight change to US migrant rules causes confusion
Pandemic-era controls barring migrants from claiming US asylum expire at midnight on Thursday amid fears of chaos at the Mexican border, with a tough new policy spelling uncertainty for thousands seeking refuge in America. Large numbers of migrants, mostly from the Americas but some as far away as Asia, were on both sides of the US-Mexico frontier on Thursday as US troops arrived to handle the expected surge of mainly poor people. Some made last-minute tries to ford the narrow but fast-moving Rio Grande River near Brownsville, Texas, hoping that they might simply be released into the United States after turning themselves into the Border Patrol. For more than three years the 3,200-kilometre frontier with Mexico has been regulated by Title 42 – a health provision designed to keep Covid infections at bay by turning people away before they made a claim for asylum. But with the formal ending of the Covid emergency, that rule will be lifted at the stroke of midnight in the US capital – and new restrictions will take its place. Those new regulations, crafted by the administration of President Joe Biden as it seeks to alleviate pressure at the border, require asylum-seekers and other migrants to request entry from outside the country. Five-year bans or criminal charges will be levied against those who try to sneak in. (AFP)