Julia Hermosa Gamara and her husband and 13-year-old daughter ran through the reeds and bushes along the Mexican side of the border with Arizona, running as fast as they could to make it across the Colorado River and into the United States title 42 Picked up
They reached the boundary wall a few minutes late. As they waited for a bus to detain her and about five dozen other migrants, Ms Gamara, 49, worried she had missed her window and would be sent back. The Biden administration has said that anyone arriving without using a lawful route would be considered ineligible for asylum.
“They’re going to deport us,” Ms. Gamara said, crying and holding her husband’s hand. “They won’t let us in.”
The family said they were fleeing violence and death threats in the Peruvian city of Ayacucho, where security forces recently killed protesters. Ms Gamara said her father was killed by guerrillas in the 1980s, and she worried her family would be targeted if she was sent back to Peru.
“We had to drop everything – everything, everything, everything,” she said. “If we go back, we will be killed.”
The midnight end of Title 42 was mostly quiet, with some late crossings and US officials preparing for what could be a dramatic increase in people trying to enter the United States as the hours or days wear on.
Here are some scenes with Borderlands at midnight:
At the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge leading to Texas, border officers stood at the ready, some of them wearing riot helmets and gear. In front of him stood a small group of exhausted migrants, including a small child in his father’s arms. A boy holding a Gatorade bottle stared at the officers.
About 30 minutes after the end of the order, near the California border with Tijuana, a border patrol car brought a new group of migrants to the Tijuana camp, possibly people picked up along the border. An agent handed the girls Mylar blankets and exited the van. Soon after, the men of the camp wrapped themselves tightly in blankets to avoid the cold and went to spend the night.
Shortly after Title 42 expired, Venezuelan Brian Piers walked with other migrants to the Department of Homeland Security’s makeshift processing center in Brownsville, Texas. His pants were still wet with mud as he limped along the dark embankment as Border Patrol agents celebrated his arrival.
Victoria Kim Contributed reporting.