A pregnant woman is forced to give birth at the Texas border as heavily armed National Guard troops confront tens of thousands of desperate migrants.
The mother-to-be was among a huge crowd gathered on the banks of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, where armored cars and endless barbed wire also stopped them from trying to cross into Mexico. for New York.
They had expected Wednesday to be the first to be allowed to lift Title 42 restrictions — until an unexpected, last-minute order was issued to temporarily hold it back.
The unidentified pregnant migrant gave birth on the riverbank, where Border Patrol agents rushed to help, said First Sergeant Susan Ringle, a spokeswoman for the National Guard patrol there. It is not yet clear what happened to the woman and her baby.
A line of armored vehicles also stood ready on the banks of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas.
Some migrants were still tried to pass by armed guards.
Others even crawled under barbed wire fences as armed troops watched.
The vehicles were brought in as El Paso declared a state of emergency ahead of the expected flooding.
El Paso, meanwhile, declared a state of emergency over the weekend as it prepares for an estimated 20,000 migrants to enter the US from Ciudad Juarez, where shelters are at capacity and food banks are nearing exhaustion.
Some migrants were allowed through the gates on Tuesday evening – hundreds of people clambered along the Rio Grande’s concrete banks, leaving burning bonfires behind.
Troops wearing camouflage and helmets and armed with rifles knelt along the river in armored vehicles, using loudspeakers to announce in Spanish that the crossing was illegal, watching large gatherings.
Children were among the masses waiting to cross to the US.
They were blocked by long rows of barbed wire.
Most of those who didn’t give up vowed not to give up easily.
Some of the children were taken while still following the armed forces along the Rio Grande.
Pig horses were given to the children ahead of the expected mass flooding across the border.
Texas said it was sending 400 National Guard personnel, and the Democratic mayor said it was to protect vulnerable immigrants, while the Guard itself said it was “deporting and deporting illegal immigrants.”
There were similar scenes in California, where layered, razor-thin walls rising 30 feet along the San Diego border held back an estimated 5,000 migrants waiting to cross from Tijuana.
Title 42 — a health order aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 — has been used to deport asylum seekers 2.5 million times, nearly half of the record 4 million at the Mexican border.
Many immigrants are waiting at the border in El Paso, Texas.
Many lit bonfires to keep warm during the longer-than-expected wait at the border.
The lines were formed at the edge of barbed wire installed by the National Guard.
The National Guard used loudspeakers to tell the migrants in Spanish that the crossing was illegal.
The White House said there was no longer a justification to “extend public health measures indefinitely” — acknowledging that ending the restrictions “could lead to a disruption and temporary increase in illegal border crossings.”
It was supposed to end on Wednesday, but the Supreme Court allowed it at the last minute on Monday stay put the legal suit of the state prosecutors of the Republic seeking to extend the temporary measures is being resolved.
President Joe Biden’s administration has asked the court to allow the asylum restrictions to end — but no later than Dec. 27, after the holiday.
Some of the tens of thousands of migrants who have flocked to border towns have complained that they were cheated.
“I think it’s a joke to give us hope, and then, like a child, they’re going to trick us into delaying,” said Vladimir Castellanos of Venezuela as he and his brother waited to cross the Rio Grande.
Another Venezuelan, Alexis Farfan, 26, said he was waiting to return after being deported from the United States earlier this month.
“I don’t give up easily… I trust God to make it to the other side,” he said.
With post wires
.