Everyone in the media, but in particular the racist, xenophobic FOX News, has been hyping the “chaos” of the “invasion of migrants” seeking asylum in the United States with the end of the Title 42 pandemic restrictions this week.
You could almost see the media talking heads salivating at the prospects of a humanitarian disaster to boost their fear mongering ,er, ratings (and profits). Fox News even had a countdown clock to midnight last night when the Title 42 policy would expire.
If you listened to the racist, xenophobic “Great Replacement” white supremacy fear mongering on FOX News, they portrayed the coming “invasion of migrants” in terms of the zombies coming over the wall in World War Z.
So much hype. The New York Times reports, Anxiety but No Signs of Chaos as Covid Border Policy Ends (excerpts):
Title 42, which lifted at midnight, had allowed agents to swiftly remove migrants on public health grounds. The immediate impact appeared to be less dire than many officials had feared.
This is what is happening at the border and beyond.
New efforts by the Biden administration to manage the effects of a worldwide increase in immigration faced their first test at the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday in the hours after the expiration of a public health measure that had allowed the authorities to swiftly remove many border crossers for more than three years.
Concerns had been building that the lifting of the order, known as Title 42, would bring scenes of chaos at the border as more people tried to enter with the expectation that they would get to apply for asylum. While a greater number crossed the border than usual in recent days, putting pressure on processing facilities and border towns, there were few signs of disorder in the hours after the policy expired at midnight.
After more than three years, over two million expulsions and thousands of migrants returned to danger, this is how Title 42 ends in Nogales.
Not a person in line.
📸@joerondone @azcentral pic.twitter.com/glL6aVP2kJ
— José Ignacio Castañeda Perez (@joseicastaneda) May 12, 2023
Here’s the line to cross into the U.S., which is normal if not shorter than the line is on other days, per a regular advocate
Four Venezuelan migrants were sitting on a bench nearby waiting for their noon CBP One appointment, more than three hours away.
No rush nor influx. pic.twitter.com/7cE4hTiy6Q
— José Ignacio Castañeda Perez (@joseicastaneda) May 12, 2023
Fox News will simply make it up to match the expectations they created for their white supremacist viewership with all their hype. Facts don’t matter on the fascist propaganda network. “Catapulting the propaganda” does.
Government officials said that anyone arriving at the border without an asylum appointment or other official path to entry would be assumed to be ineligible for asylum under a new policy, and the Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, sounded a tough note: “The border is not open,” he said.
Still, thousands of migrants are being detained in Border Patrol holding facilities, awaiting processing. They are expected to be released in the coming days, creating uncertainty in towns and cities near the border, including El Paso, where Mayor Oscar Leeser told reporters on Friday: “We know this is just the beginning.”
Federal officials also warned of a “difficult transition” from one set of immigration polices to another. On some days this past week, more than 11,000 people crossed the southern border illegally, according to internal agency data obtained by The New York Times, putting holding facilities run by the Border Patrol over capacity. Over the past two years, some 5,000 to 7,000 people crossed on a typical day; officials consider 8,000 or more a surge.
A person familiar with the situation said that fewer than 10,000 people were taken into custody while crossing the border on Thursday, indicating that the largest increase may have come before Title 42 lifted, although that remains to be seen. The Biden administration had said it expected as many as 14,000 border crossers daily in the immediate aftermath of the order’s expiration.
Mexican and Central American migrants are most affected by the lifting of Title 42.
While Title 42 was in force, migrants did not face penalties for trying to cross the border illegally multiple times. They often do so to try to increase their chances of staying in the United States, even if only temporarily.
Now that the rule is no longer in effect, migrants will once again face repercussions — a fine and jail time — if they are caught crossing the border illegally a second time.
A coalition of migrant aid groups sharply criticized the Biden administration’s new policy of presuming that asylum seekers who cross the border illegally are ineligible to claim asylum. The advocates said it was not reasonable to expect people fleeing violence and other problems to wait to set up an appointment using the government’s app, CBP One. “When you’re fleeing for your life, you do not schedule an appointment,” Maribel Hernández Rivera, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, referencing a mother and daughter she had met at the border this week: “You go and save your 6-year-old daughter.”
At a shelter for migrants in McAllen, Texas, operated by Catholic Charities, volunteers said they were working around the clock to keep up with the flow, but they have managed so far. Yesterday the shelter reached its capacity of 1,500 people, and volunteers had to turn away about 200 migrants, who were taken to tents set up at a nearby park. “I have never seen it this full,” Juan Mercado, a worker at the shelter, said. “But we are able to help everyone or we send them to the park.”
Oscar Leeser, the mayor of El Paso, told reporters on Friday that the city across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico — a popular crossing point into the United States — had so far experienced a “very smooth transition” after the lifting of Title 42 at midnight. But he cautioned that thousands of migrants who arrived recently are being held in Border Patrol facilities and expected to be released in the coming days. “We know this is just the beginning,” the mayor said. “We have been preparing for what’s coming behind.”
Bloomberg News adds, As Pandemic-Era Border Restrictions End, US Doesn’t See Fresh Migrant Surge:
US authorities are seeing historic numbers of migrants arrive at the border with Mexico, but no fresh spike following the expiration of pandemic-era border restrictions.
“We continue to encounter high levels of noncitizens at the border but we did not see a substantial increase overnight or an influx at midnight,” Blas Nuñez-Neto, assistant Homeland Security secretary for border and immigration policy, told reporters Friday.
US authorities are seeing historic numbers of migrants arrive at the border with Mexico, but no fresh spike following the expiration of pandemic-era restrictions https://t.co/DWUGPVfhW3
— Bloomberg (@business) May 12, 2023
What is missing from the feckless media’s echoing Fox News’ “great replacement” white supremacy fear mongering of an “invasion of migrants” is any concern for the actual humanitarian crisis on the border of desperate people seeking asylum from horrific conditions and violence in their home countries, and hoping for a better life in the United States.
MSNBC’s Alex Wagner had the most humane coverage of the end of Title 42 I have seen. Kudos to her for responsible journalism.
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UPDATE: Reuters reports, “Migrant crossings at border dip as U.S. ends Title 42”, https://news.yahoo.com/migrant-crossings-border-dip-u-081353243.html
The Biden administration says migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have unexpectedly fallen, not risen, after the end of Title 42, and they credit that to a return to policies that penalize illegal entry.
After the so-called Title 42 immigration program expired last week, there’s been a reinstatement of criminal penalties at the border.
Title 42 allowed officials to expel migrants quickly without an asylum process but did not impose punishment.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:
“In fact, in the past two days, the U.S. Border Patrol has seen an approximately 50% drop in the number of people encountered at the Southern border as compared to the numbers earlier this week before Title 42 came to an end midnight on Thursday.”
Under a new policy, people who are caught entering the U.S. illegally will be deported and barred from trying again, even through legal means, for five years.
The White House now faces a lawsuit mounted by the American Civil Liberties Union, who claim the latest restrictions violate U.S. laws and international agreements.
Mayorkas denied those accusations, saying the government has led “the greatest expansion of lawful pathways ever” for people seeking asylum.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:
“An individual must access those lawful pathways that we have made available to them. If they have not, then they must have sought relief in one of the countries through which they have traveled and been denied. And if they haven’t done either, it’s not a ban on asylum, but they have a higher threshold of proof that they have to meet. That is a presumption of ineligibility that can be overcome.”
In 2022 we had the Red Wave that was barely a GQP wet dream. Now, in 2023, we have GQP promulgated FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) turn into Repugnant DUD (dubious ubiquitous deceptions.) When will Americans learn that nothing coming out of these MAGA traitors’ pie hole is true?