Julio-Cesar Chavez
U.S. authorities said they closed the busy Ciudad
Juarez-El Paso border bridge on Friday after more than a hundred mostly
Cuban migrants tried to cross in response to a court ruling suspending
an asylum policy.
Earlier, an appeals court ruled to block one of
President Donald Trump’s signature immigration policies the
administration says has helped to curb migration on the southern border
and forced tens of thousands to wait in Mexico.
Word of the news
spread on social media and a Reuters witness saw migrants on the Mexican
side of the border heading towards the bridge while some U.S. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) officers were putting on riot gear.
“I’ve
been waiting in Juarez for ten months,” said one Cuban asylum seeker,
who declined to give his name. “I don’t care how long I have to wait
here for them to let us through.”
CBP confirmed on its Twitter
account that it had closed the Paso Del Norte Bridge to stop a group of
migrants from illegally and forcefully entering the United States and
that other ports stayed open.
The policy has forced roughly
60,000 people back to Mexico under one of Trump’s asylum policies,
called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), to await the outcome of
their cases in often dangerous border towns.
There, they are vulnerable to kidnapping, rape, robbery and other crimes while living in sometimes unsanitary conditions.
Later
on Friday, the Trump administration said in an emergency motion that at
least 25,000 migrants sent back through the program were still in
Mexico and that halting the program “could prompt a rush on the southern
border”.
In response, the appeals court put its ruling on hold
to allow the administration to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take
up the issue.
“It’s time for everyone to start going home, no
one is going to cross tonight,” said Enrique Valenzuela, head of the
population council of the Chihuahua state government, whose is among
those in charge of handling migrants at the border.
“The suspension has been suspended, MPP is back,” he told migrants as he walked through the crowd at the base of the bridge.
Even though some migrants left, dozens were still present when CBP tweeted the bridge would remain closed overnight.
The bridge was reopened on Saturday morning.
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