'Chaotic for a time' at the US-Mexico border: Biden

President Joe Biden predicted that the US-Mexico border would be "chaotic for a while" when pandemic-related restrictions end, as 550 active-duty troops began arriving and migrants weighed whether or when to cross. The restrictions have been in place since 2020, and the U.S. is putting into place a set of new policies that will clamp down on illegal crossings while offering migrants a legal path to the United States if they apply online through a government app, have a sponsor and pass background checks. Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke for roughly an hour Tuesday to discuss the border. About 100 people — mostly from Colombia — came across the border before dawn Tuesday and walked nearly two hours through remote, boulder-strewn mountains east of San Diego to a sandy plateau where Border Patrol agents watched over them. Agents in the U.S.

Border Patrol’s relatively quiet El Centro, California, sector stopped about 260 migrants a day over a four- or five-day period through Sunday, up from about 90 a day the previous week. In the Mexican border city Phanord Renel of Haiti said he would not risk deportation to cross the border illegally. U.S. and international law give migrants the right to seek asylum, but the U.S. has used Title 42 of a public health law to expel migrants with no chance at asylum since March 2020. The Biden administration has said it is ready to deal with whatever happens after Title 42's use ends, but has also criticized Congress for not making changes to the country's immigration system. The White House has announced the movement of troops to beef up security along the southern border, but they will mainly be used to monitor and watch the border, or do data entry and support.

The goal is to free up U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to do law enforcement activities. At least some of the active-duty troops will be used near El Paso, Texas, while CBP will decide where forces will go. The Biden administration's plan is meant to crack down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an emergency declaration in response to a tenfold increase in the number of asylum-seekers arriving in the city in need of temporary shelter and other help.