(Jacumba Hot Springs) ‘We had to move forward’: At the US border with Mexico, migrants continue to enter the US illegally despite temporary closures announced by President Joe Biden.

Alex Roman, a 31-year-old Colombian who trekked under the blazing sun in the desert, heard about the new U.S. restrictions while he was still on the Mexican side.

“With all the money we spent to get this far… Why would we have turned around without trying” to pass, he asked AFP.

He entered the United States by taking advantage of a passage in the wall which separates the two countries and leads to the small border town of Jacumba Hot Springs, where he intends to file an asylum application, like the family of Freddy Sanchez.

At 37, the latter left his country – Guatemala – for weeks and also heard about the new American measures the day before his attempt to cross.

“I thought about it, I got discouraged, but at the same time I said to myself ‘No, in the name of God, we’re going to make it’. And here we are,” confides this father.

With him, there are about 80 of them lined up against the border wall. They come from India, China, Honduras, Nicaragua, Turkey or Jordan and are waiting to plead their case.

Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he would prevent migrants who entered the United States illegally from benefiting from the right to asylum when their number exceeds 2,500 per day for a week, which is currently the case.

This figure is lower than the daily average observed since February 2021, underlines Adam Isacson, migration specialist at the NGO Washington Office on Latin America.

The measure should therefore come into force immediately, even if the difference is not felt in Jacumba Hot Springs.

 “Nothing has changed,” remarks an American border police agent, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In fact, the day after Mr. Biden’s announcement passed like any other at the border: around 4,000 migrants were counted by the authorities, according to figures cited by the American media.

The number of migrants illegally crossing the approximately 3,000 km border had climbed to 10,000 per day in December. If the figure has fallen, the attacks from the Republican camp against Joe Biden on this subject have not weakened.

Former Republican President Donald Trump, who accuses migrants of “poisoning the blood” of the country, has promised to carry out “the largest deportation operation in the history” of the country if he is elected again president in November.

The current Democratic president has also been criticized on the left for his shift to the right, five months before the presidential election.

His executive order is similar to one issued in 2018 by Mr. Trump. He was then blocked in court after an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This powerful rights defense association also plans to take legal action against Joe Biden’s text.

The latter, however, provides for exceptions, particularly in the case of unaccompanied minors.

Two Jordanian teenagers arrived in Jacumba Hot Springs on Wednesday.

 “Their parents stayed in Mexico,” said a volunteer who offered them food. “At the last minute, when they learned of the new measures, they got scared and decided not to pass [themselves], but to send [the two teenagers]. Their uncle lives here.”

From a distance, groups of Colombian and Peruvian migrants arrive on foot, exhausted, after having also crossed the border illegally.

No decree or physical obstacle seems to discourage these men, women and children in search of a better future, many of whom speak of torture, threats or economic disasters suffered in their country of origin.

 “There are people here from many countries […], it’s a global problem,” assures Colombian Alex Roman. “This is something that will never stop, because the United States, for everyone, is the American dream, our promised land.”