CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Tears flowed amid heartfelt embraces as Mexican families were allowed brief reunions at the border with relatives who migrated to the United States. As a mariachi band played the popular song “Las Mañanitas,” about 150 families passed over the Rio Grande on Saturday for five-minute meetings with loved ones they had not seen for years. It was the 10th edition of the “Hugs, not walls” event, which was organized by humanitarian groups in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Unlike at earlier reunions, a strong guard of U.S. officers was present at the event, which came just days before Washington will lift Title 42 asylum rules imposed for the pandemic that allowed the U.S. to expel more than 2.8 million migrants since March 2020.