The U.S. is putting new restrictions into place at its southern border to try to to stop migrants from crossing illegally and encourage them instead to apply for asylum online through a new process. The new rules come with the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the last three years. Those restrictions have often been referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law allowing curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health. Disinformation has swirled and confusion has set in during the transition.
Rescued by Panama’s border police, two women are now en route to Texas. They don’t know how they will cross into the U.S., though, as new restrictions on asylum went into effect last Thursday.