Staff with the Kino Border Initiative bring migrants breakfast while they wait in line at the Nogales port of entry. Dozens of migrants are waiting for days at the port of entry in Nogales hoping they’ll get a chance to ask for asylum in the U.S.
Migrants in Nogales, Sonora, had hoped they would be able to seek asylum in the U.S. following last week’s end of Title 42, the public health policy that allowed border officials to quickly expel migrants from the country.
But many say, for them, nothing has changed. Like Axel, who has been waiting at the port with his wife since Sunday morning. The couple is from Guerrero, a Southern Mexican state that is experiencing high levels of violence.
Axel says he hoped when Title 42 ended, something would change. But it hasn’t, and he feels there is nothing else he can do.
“We were hoping for a change. But honestly, things are the same. There’s nothing we can do,” he said in Spanish.
Dozens of families, many with small children, wait by the port of entry day and night. Staff with the Kino Border Initiative are bringing two meals a day and offering some mental health services.
The number of people being processed for asylum at the port, who don’t already have an appointment, are minimal, says the nonprofit’s executive director Joanna Williams. She is concerned families could be out there waiting for weeks.
“The people who are waiting out in the physical line at the port of entry, are doing so because they are trying every channel that they can think of to try and access protection in the U.S.,” she said.
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