TIJUANA RIVER VALLEY — Border patrol rounded up over 100 migrants Thursday evening – some of whom told us they had been without a meal for days.
Just before 6 p.m. Thursday several agents swept in past the secondary border fence to line up the migrants who were waiting past the first border wall.
A couple of kids could be seen sitting on the ground while agents began to check a long line of migrants’ passports.
One migrant told ABC 10’s Austin Grabish the group had people from Colombia, Jamaica, and Ukraine. One man from Eritrea told Grabish it took him four years to get to America. He said he had been sleeping on the ground for days and got soaked in the rain Wednesday night.
The 26-year-old said he’s coming to the U.S. for peace and opportunity. But there’s no guarantee he’ll be allowed to stay after being taken in for processing.
Title 42 allows border officials to quickly turn away asylum seekers due to the COVID emergency and has been used almost three million times.
The policy is set to end next Thursday and has prompted the Biden administration to send 1,500 troops to the southern border.
“We’re going to see much more activity at the southern border and with that comes a greater need for border management,” said Tom Wong, founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center.
Wong said many of those people may have had legitimate asylum cases and could try again to come to America. He said they would have to convince an immigration officer they have a well-founded fear of persecution.
“With these USCIS asylum officers, these individuals will be given a credible fear interview. This means due process. This means that individuals will have an opportunity to tell their migratory story.”
The 26-year-old from Eritrea had no idea what Title 42 was and expressed dismay when he heard thousands of migrants could be coming to the border next week. He is scared his chances of getting asylum could be impacted.
Wong said smugglers have incentive to spread misinformation and tell migrants now is the time to come when U.S. policy changes.
”Let’s remember that migrant smuggling is a multibillion-dollar business and smugglers are as creative as some large corporation are in terms of selling their services.”
