Today at midnight, hundreds of thousands of immigrants will attempt to cross the border into the United States, when the “Title 42” public policy, implemented during Donald Trump’s administration as a preventive sanitary measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, ends.

Thousands of immigrants have arrived in the last few months to the Mexican border, staying at shelters and refuges in Tijuana. It is estimated that, so far, there are 15,000 immigrants, of which 6,000 of them are in shelters and refuges. It is expected that, in the next few hours, 10,000 more immigrants arrive in border cities.

In Tijuana, the presence of immigrants has increased at the border line in areas such as Playas de Tijuana, the international border, and the Chaparral and San Ysidro ports of entry.

Enrique Lucero Vásquez, head of Immigrant Assistance, states that Tijuana is about to experience a humanitarian crisis if the number of people in the city continues to increase. The causes that motivate the mass movement of immigrants are different; people from Central America or Haiti are trying to cross the border in search of a better life, however, Mexican immigrants, who are unaware of the end of Title 42, are looking to escape Mexico due to violence.

This critical situation is being experienced in the borders of El Paso, Brownsville, and Laredo where it is estimated there are around 12,000 immigrants arriving per day. The US government has sent more than 24,000 law enforcement agents, including military members from the Pentagon.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has spoken about this historic event, saying that in the next few hours there will be a “a chaotic situation for quite a while”.

Title 42 will end at 11:59 PM Washington and New York time today. Once it ends, Title 8 will begin to apply.

It should be stated that everyone who tries to cross the border illegally will not be able to apply for political asylum and will not be able to apply legally.