As Title 42 is set to expire, security officials are bracing for what could be an unprecedented influx of migrants seeking asylum along the southern border.
In Tijuana, more than 200 people from countries including Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Turkey waited in an area between two layers of border wall that has become an open-air holding cell for the U.S. Border Patrol. Families said they’d been waiting as many as four days to be processed.
Border Patrol has been holding migrants for extended periods of time between the border walls in the region since at least October. Agents have begun putting wristbands on migrants that indicate which day they were apprehended.
Somerton, Arizona
Advertisement
Immigrants turn themselves over to U.S Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border in Somerton, Ariz., on May 11.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
A U.S Border Patrol agent takes a cellphone photo of a man at the U.S.-Mexico border in Somerton, Ariz.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
Immigrants are lined up to board a bus after turning themselves over to U.S Border Patrol agents.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico
Immigrants wait under tents to turn themselves over to U.S Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
Immigrants walk along the border wall to turn themselves over to U.S Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
Tijuana
A young woman had only a plastic bag and sticks for shelter as she waits for border patrol to take her into detention and be processed for asylum in Tijuana.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
Migrants hoping to cross into the United States from Tijuana try to keep warm on May 12.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
With less than 24 hours until Title 42 expires, U.S. border patrol agents lead a group of women to vehicles headed to processing.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Mahya, 4, from Afghanistan waits with her parents and four sisters in Tijuana to get into the United States. One of her sisters said life for five daughters was too difficult in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
U.S. border patrol agents make contact with migrants hoping to cross into the United States from Tijuana on May 11.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Migrants hoping to cross into the United States from Tijuana wait in an area north of the city.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Migrants wait in Tijuana ahead of the expiration of Title 42.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
People hold up signs supporting the extension of Title 42 during a rally in Chula Vista, Calif.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Mexicali
A boy lies on the floor at the Albergue del Desierto shelter in Mexicali, Mexico.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Ciudad Juarez
Migrants cross a barbed-wire barrier into the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
(Christian Chavez / Associated Press)
Migrants, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, wait for U.S. authorities in an area between a barbed-wire barrier and the border fence at the U.S.-Mexico border.
(Christian Chavez / Associated Press)
Rio Grande
Migrants cross the Rio Grande on an inflatable mattress into the United States from Matamoros, Mexico.
(Fernando Llano / Associated Press)
Migrants try to get to the U.S. after crossing the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico.
Gary Coronado was a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times from 2016-24. He is a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature photography for images of Central Americans risking life and limb as they jump aboard the trains from southern Mexico bound for the United States and a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news photography for team coverage of hurricanes. He began freelancing for the Orange County Register and relocated to South Florida in 2001, when he was awarded a fellowship through the Freedom Forum. Coronado grew up in Southern California and graduated from USC.
Carolyn Cole is a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. Her coverage of the civil crisis in Liberia won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. Cole has been named U.S. newspaper photographer of the year three times. Cole grew up in California and Virginia, before attending the University of Texas, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She went on to earn a master of art’s degree from Ohio University.
