US immigration policy Title 42 expired Thursday night, marking the end of restrictions put in place by the Trump administration amid the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed the government to deny asylum seekers entry into the country.

In the hours leading up to the termination of Title 42, migrants continued to gather near entry points on the southern border with Mexico, hoping for another chance to enter the U.S. as confusion over impending policy changes and their impact persisted.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas warned on Thursday that “starting tonight, people who arrive at the border without using a lawful path are likely to be ineligible for asylum.” He noted that 24,000 Border Patrol agents and officers had been deployed to work with “thousands of troops and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help enforce our laws.”

“Don’t believe the lies of smugglers,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “The border is not open. People who do not use available legal routes to enter the US now face harsher consequences, including a minimum five-year ban on return and possible criminal prosecution.”

Both the United States and Mexico show an increased presence of enforcement.

The San Ysidro border crossing into Tijuana was closed for six minutes Wednesday evening to allow dozens of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to train in riot gear.

The agency did not provide details on the reasons for the security drill, the second in a week. As part of the exercise that covered several lanes of the port of entry, officers threw what appeared to be tear gas grenades. A few steps away, on the Mexican side, a group of National Guard members were conducting their own exercise.

A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said this week that there are no plans to close the entry gates.

The National Guard of Mexico has been

positioned

along the southern tier of border barriers in recent weeks, and Thursday was no exception. Tijuana police also appeared to be more closely monitoring activity at ports of entry.

Lawyers from Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit legal services organization that supports asylum seekers, spread across Tijuana to give presentations at several shelters about the upcoming policy changes. At Templo Embajadores de Jesus, migrants listened intently as a group discussed the new rule

S

and the requirements to qualify for asylum.

Meanwhile, north of the U.S.-Mexico border in Somerton, Arizona, buses drove in and out of a parking lot at the Regional Center for Border Health all day Thursday, transporting migrants just released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody to the Phoenix

Sky Harbor International Airport

if they had flights, or to a motel for the night.

Chief Executive Officer Amanda Aguirre said there are some 800 migrants

arrival on 15 buses

were the most

housed its staff

in the following two years

starting

a transition center where migrants can

received

make medical assistance and travel arrangements from the Yuma,

Arizona area

.

Higher numbers were expected on Friday. Aguirre said the local fire department had informed her that 140 migrants would be released onto the streets unless authorities came up with two more buses and additional shelter.

Because there is none

big bus

station in Yuma just a stop with a bench, the organization acts as a travel center for migrants who might otherwise become lost and confused.

People from Senegal, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Iran, Russia and Brazil were among those who waited

on chairs

under white tarpaulins for rapid COVID-19 testing and travel schedule

Hi

. Migrants pay their own bill, although the Regional Center for Border Health helps to refill as needed.

By 5pm, migrants, many of them wearing sneakers with missing shoelaces after being taken off by border agents, were queuing to board a bus to a motel for the night. Aguirre said most hotels in the area refused to rent rooms to migrants, so during peak farm season, they compete for rooms with contractors who hire temporary foreign workers.

IB, a Peruvian man who asked to be identified by his initials out of concern for his immigration case, said he flew to Mexicali, crossed the border and turned himself in to border agents. He was held for six days before being released in Yuma.

He said he hadn’t known the details of the changes to Title 42 when he

made the trip

.

We knew they were going to change the rules after the 11th, but we didn’t know it would be this strict, he said. I think I got a little lucky.

IB said he had been notified to appear in immigration court and is hoping for asylum. He said he fled Lima, the Peruvian capital, after Venezuelan gangs began extorting him.

seeking

more than $2,500 per month. Hi

said hi

paid

them for

two months, but when he ran out of money, he knew he would be killed if he stayed. So he sent his wife and three children to another state and decided to seek safety in Miami after being encouraged by friends who had recently arrived in the US.

Guri Singh, 21, said he fled India after experiencing religious discrimination as a Sikh. His parents, who live legally in England, were unable to arrange a visa for him. So he said he paid smugglers $50,000 to fly to El Salvador, then took buses to the US border.

Singh said he had never heard of Title 42 and was unaware of impending border policy changes. He just knew he had a flight to the Bay Area and would be at his cousin’s house at 3 p.m. Friday.

As the sun began to set along the Rio Grande on Thursday, US immigration officials launched a new operation to capture migrants. It was a routine action in the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which has emerged as the nation’s busiest for immigrant detentions and deportations.

without legal status

.

As many as 500 migrants, all of whom wanted to surrender to US authorities, had gathered on the US side in front of the border fence, about 20 kilometers east of El Paso.

Officials arranged for a truck to provide toilets for the crowd. Officers separated single men and women from families traveling with children. Border police officers

Allowed

families to exit through a border gate to waiting detention vans.

Texas National Guard troops patrolled the perimeter of the area where migrants waited patiently. Latecomers crossing the Rio Grande were not allowed to be included in the large group and were told to walk another two miles downriver to another border gate where a growing group of migrants was waiting.

Among those who arrived late was a family from Cali, Colombia, a couple and their

2-

year old boy. The father carried his son across the shallow Rio Grande, stepping on strategically placed stones to avoid getting his feet wet

as his wife followed.

It’s frustrating, said the Colombian woman as this family, like so many others, pondered the next step in their

trip

. But one cannot give up hope.

Castillo, McDonnell and Aleaziz write for the Los Angeles Times. Morrissey writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.