SAN DIEGO — A new group of migrants are waiting for answers at the United States-Mexico border. It’s been nearly two weeks since Title 42 ended, reshaping American immigration and drawing attention to our southern border.
As of Wednesday morning, there are a little more than a hundred people looking to come to the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Migrant service groups and people seeking asylum both told CBS 8 that while Title 42 is gone, the conditions driving migrants to our border for help are still present.
Nearly two weeks after Title 42 expired, the number of border crossings have been lower than originally projected.
Pedro Rios is a human rights activist with the American Friends Service Committee.
Rios says border patrol is "Ensuring that people are picked up and not having to be forced to wait in areas that are inhospitable and could endanger their lives."
Enrique Lucero is Tijuana's Municipal Director of Migrant Assistance. Lucero shared, "Its approaching 133 people here waiting to attempt to apply for asylum. These people, these asylum seekers are desperate but (can't) don't get appointment on CBP app. Not because they don't have the space in the shelter. The problem is because they want to attempt to be asylum seekers. The (other) problem is (there are) less appointments because demand is so bigger."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden Administration’s policy of Title 8 is working because it has legal pathways to asylum and more punitive measures for unlawful crossings.
Migrants must now prove they were first denied asylum in a country they passed through on their way to the United States or they could face criminal prosecution, detention and a five year ban from reentering.
Rios says the person seeking asylum and entry to the United States doesn't always fare better than the person who is detained at the border because they didn't meet Title 8 requirements.
"Both are extremely difficult to obtain a positive notification of either receiving asylum or waiting in the US and not being deported," Rios said.
CBS 8 reached out to Customs and Border Protection for comment and have not heard back. The migrants we talked to at the border are coming from Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti and Kyrgyzstan.
WATCH RELATED: U.S. seeing fewer migrants crossing border a week after Title 42's end (May 2023).