By Miriam Jordan and Michael D. Shear | New York Times
EL PASO, Texas — The Biden administration is preparing to lift an emergency health rule that has been used to prevent hundreds of thousands of migrants from entering the United States, setting the stage for what could be a new immigration surge that inflames political tensions and strains resources across the southern border.
Barring a last-minute legal challenge, the Trump-era policy known as Title 42 will expire at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Thursday. It was put in place three years ago under the premise of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Border agents, state and local officials and even President Joe Biden’s top aides in Washington are all bracing for the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants in the coming days. Already, people have begun crossing into U.S. border towns, anticipating the end of Title 42, which since 2020 has allowed the government to swiftly expel citizens of several countries back to Mexico.
Three cities in Texas — Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso — have declared a state of emergency. Outside Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown El Paso this past week, a tableau of human misery fanned out for several blocks, with destitute migrants occupying every spit of sidewalk.
In just days, the numbers there have soared from a few dozen people to about 2,000, and more keep arriving. Families sleep on collapsed cardboard boxes at night, affixing sheets to fences to create shade during the day. Able-bodied men are asking for bus money to reach Houston, Denver and Orlando, Florida, where they said jobs await; little children roam the alleyways scavenging for food and begging for change.
“It’s a real crisis,” said Father Rafael Garcia, surveying the crowd sprawling in every direction one day last week. “If this is now, what is it going to look like after May 11? How is this going to unfold?”
That question is at the heart of a monumental challenge with a grim history. When the…
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