‘This was my last try’: dismay at US border as Title 42 ends and little changes

As the US's pandemic migration restrictions ended on Thursday, the hopes of those waiting at the border faded

My plan is to give up," Fernando Jesus Manzano, 32, from the state of Falcon, Venezuela, said dejectedly as he gazed at the hundreds of fellow migrants waiting to turn themselves in to US migration authorities as Thursday turned into Friday and a new policy era at the US-Mexico border.

Manzano arrived at Door 42", a gate along the border barrier in El Paso, west Texas, shortly before the expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era rule implemented during the coronavirus pandemic that allowed the US to turn away migrants at its border with Mexico without allowing them to exercise their right to seek asylum.