An unexpected calm has settled along parts of the US-Mexico border after President Joe Biden's administration made sweeping changes to asylum rules that officials thought would start a surge in crossings.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the number of migrants crossing into the US has halved since Title 42 expired last week.
The pandemic-era policy had been used to expel most asylum seekers without allowing them to file claims.
“The numbers that we have experienced over the past two days are markedly down over what they were before the end of Title 42,” Mr Mayorkas said at the weekend.
Still, he warned it is too early to say that the relative quiet will last.
The highest numbers crossing the border were in the days leading up to the changes, with apprehensions reaching about 11,000 last Tuesday — one of the highest recorded totals.
President Joe Biden's administration implemented new policies on Friday that included new legal pathways for migrants from some countries, and punitive measures for those crossing unlawfully, which includes deportation and long bans on re-entry.
Under the new rules, most migrants will be presumed ineligible for asylum if they pass through other countries without seeking protection.
Blas Nunez-Neto, assistant secretary for immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said on Monday that officials had already deported thousands under the rules, known as Title 8.
"Since Friday, we have removed and repatriated thousands of non-citizens including single adults and families to more than 10 countries, including Colombia, Honduras and Peru," Mr Nunez-Neto told journalists.
"Thousands more are currently being held in Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, going through the asylum process in our expedited removal process."
The rules have far-reaching consequences for migrants and asylum seekers from Central and South America, most of whom go on long journeys before crossing into the US through Mexico.
The National spoke to migrants who had made it into the US shortly before Title 42 expired. Their immigration status was unclear and they were not sure of the legal process ahead of them.
Some had been placed under deportation proceedings but were released on their “own recognisance”, meaning they were free to stay in the US for now.
Camilo Hernandez, 23, arrived in the border city of El Paso, Texas, after a 12-month slog. He came with his beloved dog, Milon, who he said he could not leave with anyone in his home country of Colombia.
“We crossed the wall together,” he told The National, adding that along the way, Milon got tired from walking and injured his foot.
In Colombia, Mr Hernandez sold newspapers and magazines at a stand, and sometimes delivered food.
He said the Venezuelan crisis greatly affected Colombia's economy. The daily rate for construction work, in which he was also employed, once paid $40 a day. Now it is only $15, he said.
He made the journey by foot and bus, and it took a month to cross Mexico. He wants to move to California and work there before his appointment in the Immigration Court, which is on June 5, 2025, in San Francisco.
Alexandra, 30, who did not want to use her last name, is seven months pregnant. She arrived in El Paso in January.
“I’m starting to feel tired,” she said.
Alexandra has two young children from a previous relationship. They stayed with their grandparents in Colombia.
She said that after she has the baby she wants to sell arepas — a type of stuffed flatbread made with corn dough — for a living.
She made arepas in Colombia, waking at 3am, cooking for three hours and making about 200 with meat, chicken or cheese. The chicken ones were very popular, Alexandra said.
Migrant advocates have criticised the new border rules, saying they breach long-standing domestic and international laws that protect the right to asylum of people fleeing violence and persecution.
“Migrants who have walked or hitchhiked or travelled thousands of miles away from home to make it to the US-Mexico border aren't simply going to turn around and go back when they find out that accessing the asylum process is harder than they had been led to believe,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council.
Immediately after the new rules went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union and other pro-immigrant groups filed a lawsuit challenging them.
The groups contend the rules mimic the hardline policies of former president Donald Trump.
“The Biden administration’s new ban places vulnerable asylum seekers in grave danger and violates US asylum laws,” Katrina Eiland, managing lawyer with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.
“We’ve been down this road before with Trump. The asylum bans were cruel and illegal then, and nothing has changed now."
The Biden administration has defended the new restrictions, saying they include a programme that offers temporary visas for nationals from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti who can find sponsors in the US.
