Republicans in Washington have been saying Biden is too lenient, but people on the ground in Mexico suggest the root of the recent rise in unauthorized border crossings is actually the president’s prolonged maintenance of the most restrictive of his predecessor’s policies: the near-complete cutting off of asylum, a form of legal immigration. “We want the authorities to simply tell us how we will be processed,” Rosemeri says. It’s a common refrain among migrants I spoke with. But they have no idea when such guidance will come. The only options available at the moment are to keep sticking it out in squalid and often unsafe conditions until they’re eventually let into the U.S. — not knowing when that day will come — or to try to make their own way across the border. Many of the people living in La Esperanza, including Rosemeri, stressed their commitment to following the law, explaining that one of the reasons they’re waiting at the official border crossing point is to demonstrate their desire to enter in a respectful, legitimate manner. But that commitment is being tested as weeks become months. “This is a closed borders crisis, not an open borders crisis,” says Alex Nowrasteh, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. “When people don’t have the option to enter lawfully, they’re going to eventually try to come unlawfully. And the fact that the president has laid out no real timeline for getting American immigration laws back to normal is just going to increase the uncertainty and illegality of actions along the border.”