Updates from the Arizona-Mexico border after Title 42 ended
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Mostly quiet overnight in Nogales as Title 42 ends
Title 42 came to an official close Thursday night at midnight or 9 p.m. Arizona time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocol used the pandemic to allow border officers to quickly turn most migrants back across the border to Mexico without giving them a chance to ask for asylum.
It marked the end of a more than three-year-long era. At the Nogales port of entry on Thursday, those years were paved by protests against the policy — like in 2021, when migrants stood in line for hours with other travelers, vaccine cards in hand, only to be turned away.
But at least in Nogales, Title 42’s official sunset Thursday night was quiet.
"It feels a little bit disbelief that such a policy that was so profoundly damaging, the end of it is just going unnoticed," said Chelsea Sachau with the legal aid group Florence Project.
Sachau says being able to ask for asylum at a port of entry was a core right that was blocked by Title 42. She thinks asylum seekers waiting are worried now that they’ll risk their cases if they show up.
My phone died the official end of Title 42 last night after more than three years.
— Alisa Zaira Reznick (@AlisaReznick) May 12, 2023
But as @joseicastaneda reported, it was dead quiet at the port in Nogales. Just few journalists, aid workers & an elote vendor. No asylum seekers. It’s a regular morning here today. pic.twitter.com/IWqEcybhQQ
An uptick of migrants in Yuma
Authorities in the remote desert community of Yuma, Arizona, expressed alarm after the average daily number of migrant arrivals grew this week from 300 to 1,000.
Hundreds who entered the Yuma area by crossing the Colorado River early Thursday surrendered to border agents, who later brought adults and children to buses.
Mayor Doug Nicholls asked that the federal government declare a national disaster so that Federal Emergency Management Agency resources and National Guard troops can be rushed to his and other small border communities.
Most migrants are transported to shelters operated by nonprofit organizations farther away from the border, but border officials will release them into communities if enough transportation isn't available. Nicholls said officials have already told him they plan to release 141 people in Yuma County on Friday.
“The question keeps coming up: ‘What now?’ I've been asking that question for two years, with no answers,” Nicholls said. “We are at a situation we've never been at before.”
Nonprofits say they are as ready as possible
Leaders of nonprofit organizations that assist asylum seekers away from the border in Arizona say they are as ready as possible for the new scenario.
“We’ll put our best foot forward and approach this with every resource available,” said Teresa Cavendish, executive director of the Tucson shelter Casa Alitas, the state's largest. “But it may not be enough.”
Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona runs Casa Alitas’ new 300-bed facility for men, as well as four other locations that also temporarily house women, families and vulnerable people for a combined capacity of over 1,000 beds.
David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, who visited the organization's Welcome Center in Phoenix this week, was confident the agency could handle any increase in asylum seekers there. The 340-bed shelter was at less than half capacity.
Beth Strano, engagement manger for the center in a quiet south Phoenix neighborhood, said: “We served 50,000 people last year and 38,000 people the year before that without any negative impact to our clients or community.”
