They are waiting to see if President Joe Biden repeals a Trump-era policy - known as Title 42 - that allows immediate deportation of asylum-seeking migrants as soon as they cross into the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the policy in court and for a very brief moment had it rescinded on Tuesday, but another US judge reinstated the measure hours later on Wednesday, giving the Biden administration five weeks to prepare to receive an anticipated heavy flow of migrants waiting to cross into the United States once the obstacle is removed.
"Biden is supposed to eventually let people pass through, but more orderly. That's what we're waiting for, but a lot of people [migrants] have already turned themselves in," Enmanuel Ferrer, 16, a citizen of Venezuela, told Sputnik.
Ferrer cooked scrambled eggs for his three younger siblings on a makeshift stove while his mother was at work in Ciudad Juarez at a job she acquired to support her family while they wait together with 2,000 other migrants in tents at the border camp for a green light to cross into the United States.
"Every day, about 500 people cross [into the United States]. A line even forms to enter into the United States," Ferrer said.
Dozens of migrants in the United States can be seen from Mexico being processed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel and loaded into unmarked white buses.
The border camp is littered with trash accompanied by a strong scent of waste and is blanketed by cold temperatures slowly approaching in the high desert of the region of El Paso, Texas, the westernmost point of the state.
"A lot of people cross over because they don't want to be here anymore [the makeshift migrant camp along the river of the border]," Ferrer said. "They don't want to be here during the winter. At night the cold is strong. We each have to cover each other with five blankets."
While most of the migrants are from Venezuela, Ferrer said there are also people from Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, among other countries.
Ferrer said his family is fleeing the poverty in Venezuela and characterized the situation in that country as being very bad.
"Over there we had a house, we had everything, but the problem is the economy. There are no good jobs, it's not enough to live and eat, it's hard," he said.
Dozens of migrants stood all afternoon on the banks of the Rio Grande River watching US federal agents take in several migrants who chose to cross into the United States despite the fact that Title 42 was reinstated by a judge.
Ferrer said some migrants seem to not know that the policy was put back in place, meaning they will most likely be deported immediately.
"So they terminated [Title 42] and people started to pass through, but apparently they're sending [deporting] migrants to Mexico City, Tijuana, other places," Ferrer added.
Maria Angela, 42, of Venezuela, is one of those migrants who was deported under Title 42, but found her way back to the US-Mexico border between the Texas city of El Paso and the Mexican city of Juarez.
"I barely arrived today. I turned myself into [US Border Patrol custody] on Saturday and they deported me on Saturday," Angela told Sputnik. "Then, I waited for my family to send me money so I could return here [Ciudad Juarez]. They had put us in an airplane and sent us to San Diego, California, and then we crossed over into Tijuana [Mexico]. So I barely arrived here today."
Angela also confirmed that many of the 2,000 migrants are waiting to cross into the United States once Title 42 is repealed, which they expect will happen after the court-ordered five week period is up for the Biden administration to keep the policy in place.
The United States has seen two consecutive record breaking years of illegal crossings into the United States since Biden assumed office in January 2021. Well over two million illegal crossings into the United States were recorded in fiscal year 2022, according to CBP.
"We're hearing waiting to see if they terminate Title 42," Angela said. "They apparently told Biden that he had only five weeks [to keep it in place]. We're always waiting to see what happened to some people that turned themselves in yesterday."
On Wednesday night, more than 60 migrants crossed over into the United States under the impression that Title 42 was suspended, Angela said.
Similar to Ferrer's assessment about the situation in Venezuela, Angela said the economic situation in the country is desperate.
"Most people here are from Venezuela. Nothing works in Venezuela, there's not enough to live, you can't afford anything. We make $30 a month and it's not enough to live," Angela said.
The conditions at the border camp are similarly challenging. Every tent at the border camp is filled with dozens of blankets as they seek to be shielded from the freezing temperatures that hit the hardest at night, with colder temperatures anticipated in the coming weeks.
"It's starting to get cold, we live in tents. The cold is getting very strong," Angela said.