welcome to world news america on pbs and around the globe. tens of thousands of people have been gathering along this is ciudad juarez on the mexican side of the border. they ve been there for weeks, and many are expected to try to cross into the us in the coming days. that s because a temporary law introduced during the pandemic that makes it easier to remove migrants from the us is expiring later tonight. the us has been beefing up its security forces along the 2,000 mile border. that s where we start tonight. sophie long is in el paso, texas. sophie, president biden himself said this week that the border situation wil be chaotic for a while. what s the situation on the ground where you are? interestingly, at the moment, where interestingly, at the moment, where i am, in el paso, a stone s throw away from one of the crossings, it s very quiet. for many months here there has been hundreds of people who have made it across the border, sleeping on the streets of el paso, to
the us mexico border. officials have said that when title 42 is no longer in effect, tens of thousands of people could try to cross over. let s look at what the policy is. the temporary law title 42 was introduced by donald trump and meant illegal migrants could be removed quickly and it expires overnight tonight. the policy made it easier for the us to send people back to mexico using the coronavirus pandemic as justification. the winding down of covid measures means the policy no longer has any public health justification, prompting officials to announce it would end on may 11th, the same day as the official us public health emergency. and when it ends in a few hours from now, the us will return to a policy where migrants are screened to determine if they are eligible for asylum and quickly deported if they do not qualify. earlier, us homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas had this warning for those who are not eligible to seek asylum. our borders are not open. pe
where are you from? what country? china? china? china? ecuador? ecuador? ecuador? ecuador? this thing with military bases getting penetrated by foreign nationals is happening more and more. we have seen probably two or three times a week we are stopping these folks at the gate. i mean i m incredibly proud of the men and women of the united states border patrol that risked their lives to keep americans safe. are we safe? number two, our screening and vetting capabilities are stronger than they ever have been. john: as the border becomes a major national security threat president biden finally taking executive action that would effectively shut down asylum request at the border once the average number of daily encounters hits 2500. hello i am john roberts in washington, sandra the number is about half of where we are on a daily basis right now. sandra: we are watching closely for this announcement and the signing of that it executive order by the president coming
say this is a good step forward. we need legislation from congress and i will continue to work on this because it s important for my state and national security and immigration policy. we also need comprehensive immigration that will benefit our economy. that s where congress comes in. sandra: we will continue to monitor this coming at the white house right now while noting there are many democrats speaking out against the president s action he is about to take. congresswoman jaya paul has said she does not think this is the