Title 42 was introduced under the Trump administration, expelling migrants and closing official ports of entry for asylum seekers.

Hundreds of migrants huddled late Sunday on the north bank of the Rio Grande river in hopes of seeking asylum in the United States, one of the largest mass crossings the El Paso-Juarez border has seen in decades.

Officials have seen an influx of thousands of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border with the Title 42 restriction scheduled to end on Dec. 21. Immigration experts have said the decision to end the policy could have triggered the surge in asylum-seeking migrants who were released by federal immigration authorities in border state communities.

"We've been experiencing an influx since September," said Border Patrol El Paso Sector spokeswoman Valeria Morales. "In November, our demographics changed to Nicaraguans. You see the migrants staging and waiting to be transferred."

Title 42 was introduced under President Donald Trump's administration in March 2020, allowing border officials to quickly expel migrants and close official ports of entry for asylum seekers. Under the Biden administration, the policy has been used to mitigate flows of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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