Confusion and tension high at US-Mexico border despite upholding of Covid-era rules

Immigrants seeking asylum turn themselves in to US border patrol agents after wading across the Rio Grande to El Paso, Texas, in December. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Along the US southern border, two cities – El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez just across the waters of the Rio Grande in Mexico – were trying to prepare for a new surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day as pandemic-era immigration restrictions were set to expire this week, setting in motion plans for emergency housing, food and other essentials.

Even with the ruling from the US supreme court on Monday evening that the restriction known as Title 42 would not end after all, as had been ordered by a lower court, confusion and tension were high.