El Paso border patrol agents continue to prepare for the moment of Title 42 lift
By Stephanie Muñiz
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EL PASO, Texas (KOAT) — May 23, 2022, was the day Title 42 was supposed to be lifted but last week that changed with a Louisiana judge’s ruling to keep Title 42 in place.
Chihuahuita is an area of Downtown El Paso, according to Customs and Border Patrol of the El Paso Sector this is where people seeking asylum have been trying to surrender to border patrol agents although Title 42 is still in place.
The past year has been record-setting for border crossings with more than 194,000 encounters.
This year there has been a 56% increase in migrants compared to last year.
Carlos Rivera is a spokesperson for the El Paso, TX Customs and Border Patrol Sector, he said. “Since April began about 1,000 migrants a day- it is something historic for El Paso, 30,000 migrants a month and that flow has not stopped.”
The lift of Title 42 is something that could easily increase the number of people seeking asylum.
Rivera said, “We already knew that there was a possible migrant influx on the horizon and we were already making preparations.”
Rivera says they now have something called essential processing. It helps with the transfer of migrants between agencies. Part of the preparation for the lift also includes COVID-19 precautions.
“We are vaccinating here at the centralized processing center. can tell you that the migrants that we have in our facility are still placed with PPE,” Rivera said.
Although Title 42 is still in place there are still migrants trying to seek asylum.
Meanwhile, there are others trying to get in illegally.
Rivera said, “We still have the Sunland Park and Santa Teresa area where most of those migrants are trying to flee from agents and detection and arrests.”
In addition to Title 42 border patrol is still enforcing Title 8, that’s an immigration law that removes people that seek asylum that is not able to provide a valid asylum case.
The Department of Homeland Security has already redeployed more than 600 additional law enforcement to the border to help with any migrant influx.
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