Title 42 ends with migrants lined up and border cities braced for the unknown

Migrants line up on the U.S.-Mexico border prior to boarding a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol bus near El Paso on Thursday. (Credit: REUTERS/Julio Cesar Chavez)

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EL PASO — As the clock ticked down to the end of a policy used to expel migrants from the U.S. nearly 3 million times over the past three years, the lines formed again on a patch of American soil between the Rio Grande and the border wall.