Migrants face freezing Christmas at U.S.-Mexico border
STORY: After the U.S. Supreme Court this week ruled that restrictions known as Title 42 could stay in place temporarily, many migrants are facing a Christmas weekend of what Mexico's weather service called a "mass of arctic air."
"I want to spend Christmas in a place where it is not cold, I would really like to be under a roof," said Franyer Chavez, a Venezuelan migrant in El Paso, Texas. "Everyone here would like to spend Christmas under a roof because the cold is strong."
Temperatures in the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, where several thousand people are camping outside or in bare-bones shelters, are expected to hover around freezing on Saturday (December 24) and only slightly improve on Sunday (December 25).
Further west in Ciudad Juarez, where hundreds of migrants have been lining up to seek asylum at the border with El Paso, Texas, temperatures are forecast to drop to minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit). Many have been sleeping in the streets.
Officials have provided more space in shelters in recent days, but some migrants are wary.
Title 42 allows the United States to return migrants to Mexico or certain countries without a chance to request asylum. It had been due to end on Dec. 21 before the court ruling. Without clarity on when it will finish, some officials worry their cities could be overwhelmed if more migrants turn up.
