Migrants at US-Mexico border await ruling on asylum limits

A migrant couple looks towards the border fence trying to decide whether or not to cross the Rio Grande River in their attempt to enter into El Paso, Texas from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

Francisco Palacios waited for four hours with his wife and 3-year-old daughter at a border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego early Wednesday before going to a nearby hotel for a three-hour nap. They came back, bags packed, only to be disappointed again.

But the family from the western Mexican city of Morelia is prepared to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that have prevented many from seeking asylum, said Palacios.

“We don’t have a choice,” Palacios said in Spanish, explaining that his family arrived in Tijuana two weeks ago to escape violence and gangs that extorted them for years for a chunk of their income selling fruit from a street cart.