Thousands of migrants face tough new US border rules

Thousands of people remained in Mexico hoping to enter the United States, as it was not yet clear how the stringent new rules for people crossing the border illegally would be enforced.

In the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, some 200 migrants were blocked by US troops from accessing Gate 42, the entry point to El Paso, Texas, where hundreds crossed on Thursday.

In Brownsville, Texas, migrants who crossed before Friday were being taken to detention centers for processing, with many hoping to register their names and be released into the country.

Agustin Sortomi said he, his wife and two children had tried to surrender to US authorities but had been turned away.

"I don't know what to do," he told AFP. "We haven't realized our dream. Only God knows when we will."

US officials meanwhile reported the death of an unaccompanied migrant child in the custody of Health and Human Services, which takes care of children entering the country unaccompanied.

The department gave no details, but Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina said a 17-year-old Honduran boy had died in an HHS facility in Florida.

"The border is not open," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared at midnight as the United States lifted Title 42, the pandemic-era rule that had allowed officials to summarily expel border crossers, including those seeking asylum, since March 2020.

The rule change brings back into effect a decades-old policy known as Title 8, which threatens illegal border-crossers with five-year bans and possible criminal charges, and seeks to push asylum seekers to apply to migrate from outside the country.

But many from all over the Americas and as far as India and Russia remained hopeful that their pleas for...