TAMPA, Fla. — Thousands of border patrol agents and officers are on standby Thursday evening, prepared for an expected influx of migrants as the clock strikes midnight.
The U.S. is preparing for the end of a policy, known as Title 42, linked to the coronavirus pandemic that allowed it to quickly expel many migrants. It spotlights concerns about whether the end of the immigration limits under Title 42 of a 1944 public health law will mean even more migrants trying to cross the southern border.
An immigration lawyer in the Tampa Bay area said the chaos at the border is already hitting home for some families in the Tampa Bay area.
"A lot of them have this anxiety. They want to come here," said Attorney Samson Koyonda, who runs the Tampa Immigration Law Center. "They want to present their case. They want to be able to appear before a judge."
Koyonda said many seeking asylum may have local ties.
"You have people who have been granted, so to speak, permission to show up at the border, but they get caught up," Koyonda said. "You're talking about 80,000 people on the CBP app waiting to be processed. The family members here in Tampa are anxious."
Sara Quezada immigrated to Tampa Bay from Mexico when she was a child and sees her family reflected in the images from the border.
"They're just looking for a better opportunity," Quezada said. "They're trying, they're fleeing a country that maybe they don't allow, especially with females, they don't have a lot of opportunity."
New opportunity, or just a safe place to land. Koyonda represents many asylum seekers.
"Unfortunately, within the last three or four years, we've seen an absolute breakdown of law and order in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti that has compounded the sorts of migrants leaving the country," Koyonda said.
But being granted asylum is just the beginning.
"I see all the hurdles to try to come in legally. It's not about easy like people think," Quezada said.
"Because of the huge backlog, we have cases of people who can't even have their day in court for three, four or five years," Koyonda said.
As Title 42 ends, the Biden administration set new rules, denying migrants who arrive at the border without first applying online or seeking protection in a third country they've passed through.
If they've violated the rules, migrants entering the U.S. illegally could be barred from returning for five years and face possible prosecution.