Title 42 is gone. Here’s what to expect at the border this week
The U.S. Border Patrol recorded a 50% drop in migrant encounters in the three days after Title 42 was lifted as the Arizona-Mexico border remains calm in the wake of the restriction’s end.
The Border Patrol reported an average of 4,917 migrant apprehensions per day since Friday, a sharp decrease in numbers compared to the roughly 10,000 seen before Title 42’s lifting, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said.
Ortiz estimated that there were about 60,000 migrants waiting near the border in Mexico when Title 42 ended late Thursday.

The Arizona-Mexico border, however, was relatively quiet when the restriction was lifted. The number of migrants seen in Mexican border communities could still increase in the days and weeks ahead as people arrive to request asylum and as deportations begin under new regulations.
In Sasabe, Arizona, armed vigilantes reportedly harassed humanitarian volunteers providing water along the border wall Friday, The Intercept first reported. Later that day, the vigilantes intimidated arriving migrants near their truck in order to reportedly gather biographic information.
In Yuma, Mayor Douglas Nicholls announced Thursday that the Border Patrol planned to release 141 migrants into Yuma County the day after Title 42 expired.
The Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Sonora, was empty when Title 42 expired after more than three years and over 2.8 million migrant expulsions. Asylum seekers in Nogales and San Luis Río Colorado continued applying for CBP One appointments Friday as they waited in Mexican shelters.
While there was relative calm along the border over the weekend, one Nogales migrant shelter director continued to plan for a potential increase in asylum seekers.
Juan Fransisco Loureiro Esquer, director of the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter, said he expects the number of migrants to increase as they begin to make their way north and as they’re deported under the new restrictions in place.
‘Psychological torture’:These Venezuelan migrants were among the final expulsions under Title 42
Shelters in southern Mexico have become empty, potentially signaling that migrants have begun making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, Loureiro Esquer said.
The Biden administration implemented a rule that bars most migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they did not first request and be denied asylum in a country on their way to the border.
The American Civil Liberties Union, alongside other migrant advocacy groups, sued the administration over the new rule, which they say mirrors the Trump-era “transit ban.”
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from releasing migrants into the U.S. “on parole,” which could lead to overcrowding in Border Patrol facilities.
Have a news tip or story idea about the border and its communities? Contact the reporter at [email protected] or connect with him on Twitter @joseicastaneda.
For more latest Politics News Click Here