US-Mexico Border: Stuck Migrants Spend Christmas on the Freezing Border Streets

By BERT HOOVER Dec 25 2022, 22:43 PM EST

Hundreds of stuck migrants camped out in the bitter weather of the U.S.-Mexico border on Christmas day, hoping that the United States would quickly reverse its limitations on immigration.

Many migrants spent Christmas in what the Mexican meteorological service has dubbed a "mass of Arctic air" after the Supreme Court this week determined that restrictions known as Title 42 could stay in place temporarily, per Al Jazeera.

"I am staying here. Where else can I go?" said Walmix Juin, 32, a Haitian immigrant living in a makeshift tent in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas. He added that he never expected to have such a unique Christmas celebration.

Temperatures are forecast to remain near freezing in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, where thousands of people are staying outside or in rudimentary shelters, on Saturday, and only marginally to improve on Sunday.

Temperatures are expected to plummet to minus 6 degrees Celsius, or 21 degrees Fahrenheit, in Ciudad Juarez, further west, where hundreds of migrants have been waiting in line to request asylum at the border with El Paso, Texas. Many people have been camping outside.

Many people have recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border undetected or have been detained and released in El Paso, Texas. The Texas National Guard was sent to the wall to handle it.

There is no room for more people in the city's shelters, so many refugees are forced to sleep outdoors in freezing conditions.

Migrants Had a Little Christmas Cheer at the U.S.-Mexico Border

A group of 15 people, who had fled violence in their hometown in Guatemala but could not reach their families in California due to ongoing U.S. asylum limitations, participated in a candlelight ritual celebrating the Advent season in a shelter on the Mexican side of the border.

They missed the weeklong Christmas traditions they had grown to love in Nueva Concepcion.

Still, the evening service in the Buen Samaritano shelter's little Methodist church, which doubles as a cafeteria, did its best.

Fireworks, tamales prepared from a freshly butchered pig that were distributed door-to-door, and the daily procession of people carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary from the Catholic church to residences while singing hymns were all part of the festivities.

Marlon Cruz, 25, used to grow yucca and plantains in Guatemala. He said, "It's difficult to leave those traditions behind, but they had to be abandoned at any rate," claiming that they had to stay locked up at home because they heard shots if they went from house to house.

Thousands of refugees have spent Christmas in overcrowded shelters or on the streets of Mexican border towns, where they are frequent targets of organized crime because of the poverty and violence they escape.

It Is Still Not Clear What Awaits the Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico Border

To keep asylum limitations in place until after the holiday weekend, the Biden administration petitioned the Supreme Court this week.

Title 42 restrictions had been put on hold after the administration requested the delay and were granted by a lower court until December 21.

More than 2.5 million people have been deported for seeking asylum after unlawfully entering the United States, and most asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border have been denied as a result of the limitations.

Meanwhile, the court's decision is still unclear. It is also considering a request from several states to maintain the policy in light of record-breaking migrant arrivals.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Migrants face freezing Christmas at U.S.-Mexico border - From Reuters