Asylum-seekers from Mexico hope for U.S. entry after Title 42 end

A migrant from Colombia seeking asylum in the U.S. stands at the Paso Del Norte international bridge between Mexico and the United States, after the lifting of COVID-19 era Title 42 restrictions that have blocked migrants at the border from seeking asylum since 2020, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico May 12, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Lupita, a 36-year-old Mexican woman from the state of Michoacan, has spent three months in a shelter, waiting to apply for asylum in the United States. She wears some of the evidence for her case: bullet wounds about her arms, shoulder and abdomen.

Since March 2020, when broad COVID-era restrictions went into effect at the southwest border, Mexicans like Lupita were largely barred from seeking U.S. refuge and instead were quickly expelled back to Mexico.