SAN DIEGO — A Honduran woman, her four children and 2-year-old grandchild slept on a sidewalk near the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Tuesday night.
The woman, who has already spent about six months in Tijuana, said she'd heard that Title 42, a policy that blocks asylum seekers from reaching U.S. soil and expels many of those who cross anyway, would be ending Wednesday. It would be her chance to finally be able to request asylum in the United States.
But when the day arrived, her face fell as she realized that her wait in limbo was not yet over.
Title 42, which went into effect at the beginning of the pandemic, was supposed to end this week under a judge's order in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of asylum-seeking families. However, a group of states led by political conservatives has another lawsuit to try to keep the policy, and the group appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The chief justice paused the judge's order until it can decide whether the states can intervene in the ACLU's case.
"It's really difficult to be a family in the street waiting to find out what will happen," the Honduran woman said in Spanish. Her family has been living on the streets after they could no longer stay with a woman they'd met in Tijuana. The San Diego Union-Tribune is not identifying her because she said she is being pursued in Tijuana by someone who kidnapped her in Mexico.
While the intersecting court orders may seem complicated to U.S. residents who are familiar with the United States' judicial system, the legal back-and-forth is causing even more confusion south of the border. As a result, rumors and misinformation are spreading among migrants in Tijuana.
For instance, a woman at a migrant shelter told the Union-Tribune on Tuesday that she'd heard there would be no more asylum after Title 42 goes away — the opposite of the expected effect.
The Honduran woman has tried getting help from organizations who select particularly vulnerable migrants and submit their cases to Customs and Border Protection for exemptions to Title 42, but she said no one has answered her.
On Wednesday morning, she watched a group of 80 asylum seekers walk into the San Ysidro Port of Entry to request protection in the United States. She didn't understand why the group of people was able to go in and her family was not.
Many asylum seekers have told the Union-Tribune about the difficulty they've had accessing the exemption process, including that some have had to pay to be able to cross through the port of entry.
For those stuck in Mexico because of Title 42, the consequences can be dire. Human Rights First has tracked more than 13,000 attacks on asylum seekers waiting in Mexico during the Biden administration.
Though the policy, which is based on the part of U.S. law pertaining to public health, was implemented with the justification that it would slow the spread of COVID-19, those seeking to keep it in place have argued that it is necessary to deter migration to the United States.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle have called for more federal support for border regions if and when the policy does go away.
Mayor Todd Gloria joined a group of 36 mayors calling for the federal government to add $500 million in funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $300 million to one of its humanitarian assistance programs to support nonprofits who receive asylum seekers from immigration custody and help them reach their final destinations across the United States.
"These organizations have met the challenge head-on and provide essential support for our communities," the letter says. "While our shared commitment to this issue is robust, nonprofits require immediate federal assistance to continue this work. With the likely end of Title 42, even our most well-funded nonprofit partners will be overwhelmed, raising the urgency of this call to action."
County Supervisor Joel Anderson wrote separate letters to both President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom to ask for support in receiving asylum seekers.
"It is irresponsible to ask the City of El Cajon to shoulder the burden and costs necessary to address the needs of these individuals without assistance from the state and federal government," he wrote.
Both the state of California and the federal government have funding set aside to support San Diego's migrant shelters.
The Department of Homeland Security has released an outline of "pillars" it will follow when Title 42 ends, but the U.S. government has not provided details about how asylum processing will work.
In its filing with the Supreme Court, the federal government says that it will be sending more resources to the border and implementing new policies. It is not clear from the filing what those policies might be.
It is also not clear how different border apprehensions with and without Title 42 will be.
Though border crossings initially reduced greatly in the first months of the pandemic, over time crossings of asylum-seeking families returned to pre-pandemic levels. Crossings of single adults increased from recent historic levels after the implementation of Title 42.
Because of logistical and diplomatic complications, Title 42 expulsions do not effect all nationalities equally. Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans, the four nationalities most apprehended historically by Border Patrol, are much more likely to be expelled than people from other places because Mexico is willing to take back all four nationalities.
As humanitarian crises have increased globally in the past two years, border crossing trends have shifted to nationalities other than those four.
After Title 42 goes away, none of the people caught crossing the border would be eligible for expulsion, but those who do not pass initial screenings related to asylum eligibility could be quickly ordered deported and returned to their home countries under a process that used to be the norm at the border, known as "expedited removal."
What is likely to increase is the number of asylum seekers walking up to San Diego's ports of entry to request protection. The San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce posted a video Tuesday saying that PedWest, a pedestrian border crossing that is part of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, would be reopening Wednesday. The crossing has been closed since the pandemic began, and this year has been used to receive people coming for Title 42 exemptions.
However, CBP told the Union-Tribune that the crossing would remain closed, that the agency is assessing "day by day" and that it would "hopefully have a better idea as the week progresses."
The agency said Wednesday that it had no additional updates about the reopening of PedWest.
CBP confirmed to the Union-Tribune that it will continue to process exemptions while the policy remains in effect.
For those who were able to reach U.S. soil on Wednesday, the continuation of the Title 42 exemption process was a relief.
"Thanks to God's will, today I am here," said Alberto, a Honduran man who had spent several months in Mexico. "I've waited so much time for this moment, and I feel I have succeeded."
Alberto had traveled with several friends. They all identify as Miskito, a minority ethnic group in Honduras. Alberto said that because of that identity, he experienced discrimination and racism back home, and that because of violence related to narcotrafficking in the region, he'd also faced death threats. He said that despite everything he has experienced, he has worked to keep a positive mindset.
"I hope the government will consider my petition and that I will be able to prosper," he said.
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(San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.)
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