Photos: Migrants mass along the border as Title 42 nears expiration
Carolyn Cole, Gary Coronado
Mahya, 4, from Afghanistan waits with her parents and four sisters in Tijuana to get into the United States. One of her sisters said life for five daughters was too difficult in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
As Title 42 is set to expire, security officials are bracing for what could be an unprecedented influx of migrants seeking asylum along the southern border.
In Tijuana, more than 200 people from countries including Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Turkey waited in an area between two layers of border wall that has become an open-air holding cell for the U.S. Border Patrol. Families said they’d been waiting as many as four days to be processed.
Border Patrol has been holding migrants for extended periods of time between the border walls in the region since at least October. Agents have begun putting wristbands on migrants that indicate which day they were apprehended.
Tijuana
U.S. border patrol agents make contact with migrants hoping to cross into the United States from Tijuana, Mexico on May 11. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Clockwise from top left; U.S. border patrol agents process a group of 30 migrants who have been waiting to cross into the United States from Tijuana; a woman carries her crying baby after spending the night outside in hopes of crossing into the United States from Tijuana; border patrol agents hand out one bottle of water and one granola bar to each migrant; and items from migrants hoping to cross into the United States from Tijuana. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
Migrants hoping to cross into the United States from Tijuana wait in an area north of the city. Title 42, a controversial public health statute used to keep asylum seekers out of the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to end Thursday night. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Migrants wait in Tijuana ahead of the expiration of Title 42. Orders under Title 42 were first implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020 and met with legal and political challenges, but remained in place through President Biden's first years in office. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
People hold up signs supporting the extension of Title 42 during a rally in Chula Vista, Calif. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Mexicali
A boy lies on the floor at the Albergue del Desierto shelter in Mexicali, Mexico. Title 42, which allowed border agents to quickly turn back migrants, expires Thursday night. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Ciudad Juarez
Migrants cross a barbed-wire barrier into the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (Christian Chavez / Associated Press)
Migrants, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, wait for U.S. authorities in an area between a barbed-wire barrier and the border fence at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Christian Chavez / Associated Press)
Rio Grande
Migrants cross the Rio Grande on an inflatable mattress into the United States from Matamoros, Mexico. (Fernando Llano / Associated Press)
Migrants try to get to the U.S. after crossing the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images)
