The final day of Title 42 started off cold and dusty at the encampment where hundreds of migrants were waiting to get processed by immigration authorities near the banks of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas.
Under the light of a bright moon, migrants were wrapped in blankets sleeping on the dirt and others were standing trying to protect themselves from the cold breeze.
“Can we make a little fire?” a migrant couple asked a guard member that was behind the concertina wire. “We have a girl [daughter] who is very cold, she is shaking.”
The wind chill was piercing the girl’s blankets, not keeping her warm at all, they said. Right next to them was a 1-year-old girl who was also cold.
The couple didn’t want to be identified by name but said they were from Colombia.
CNN gained access to the area overnight Wednesday during a ride-along with members of the Texas National Guard.
Guard members were assembling border barriers of concertina wire. Maneuvering the sharp metal is slow and coordinated.
The commander of the operation, Maj. Sean Storrud with the Texas National Guard, said they’ve deployed more than 17 miles of border barrier in El Paso since December.
And as Title 42 ends, he says guard members are doing something different: They are creating gaps in the border barrier.
“We actually created that gap not to admit people, but to give migrants the opportunity to go back,” Storrud said.
Guard members will explain to migrants that once Title 42 lifts, there are consequences to entering illegally.
“We don’t want to trap them into that bad decision to cross illegally. We want to give them the option to take it back,” Storrud said.
The National Guard member didn’t have an answer to the couple from Colombia about what they could or couldn’t do while they are in the encampment, which is an area under Border Patrol authority.
When asked why they had crossed Wednesday morning, the couple said they wanted to enter before the end of Title 42.
“It’s impacting more Venezuelans, Haitians [than Colombians],” he said, referring to the expansion of Title 42 that includes the expulsion of certain nationalities.
Once it expires tonight, the US government will return to a decades-old section of the US code known as Title 8, which Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has warned would carry “more severe” consequences for migrants found to be entering the country without a legal basis.
Then a group of three migrants walked toward border authorities to turn themselves. A woman in the group showed a small cut on her hand from the concertina wire they had just crossed. And her friend pointed to his ankle to reveal a gaping wound.
Despite the wound, he continued walking toward immigration authorities.
“The situation is tough in our countries,” the man said. And that is why so many migrants risk and endure everything to come to the United States.
