On Friday, U.S. authorities shut down the bustling Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border bridge after more than a hundred mostly Cuban migrants attempted to cross the border.
This is in response to a court ruling suspending an asylum policy; an appeals court ruled to block one President Donald Trump's trademark immigration policies the government claims has helped to restrain migration on the southern border.
The stringent Trump administration border policy is still keeping thousands of asylum seekers trapped in Mexico.
The federal appeals court decision on Friday resulted in a chaotic day for thousands of migrants in Mexico's border cities -- at Good Samaritan and other shelters in Ciudad Juárez, at ports of entry in Tijuana and Matamoros and international bridges.
The panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals nullified a program that obligates Central American migrants to wait outside the US while their asylum cases are pending.
According to authorities, more than 100 migrants marched to the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border bridge as word of the ruling spread in the Mexican camps where at least 25,000 asylum-seekers are waiting.
According to the Trump administration on Friday, at least 25,000 migrants who returned through the program were still in Mexico and that halting the program "could prompt a rush on the southern border."
The U.S. appeals court blocked the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, sending about 60,000 asylum seekers to return to Mexico to await the outcome of their case.
About 25,000 migrants returned through the program were still in Mexico.
While some migrants were on the Mexican side of the border heading towards the bridge, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were wearing riot gear.
A Cuban asylum seeker said, "I've been waiting in Juarez for ten months."
On Twitter, CBP confirmed that it had shut down the Paso Del Norte Bridge to stop a group of migrants from illegally and forcefully entering the United States.
The MPP called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings. This was part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to reduce the record of migration surge among Central American families.
In Mexico, they are vulnerable to kidnapping, rape, robbery and other crimes while living in at times unsanitary conditions.
The "Remain in Mexico" policy was found to be legally invalid, a ruling that prompted the initial cheering at Good Samaritan. It has forced migrants to wait in Mexico for months as their asylum cases are reviewed.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to end the policy, labeling it "unspeakably cruel."
An emergency motion from the Trump administration said an end to the program "could prompt a rush on the southern border." The court put its ruling on hold in response.
According to Enrique Valenzuela, head of the population council of the Chihuahua state government, "It's time for everyone to start going home, no one is going to cross tonight."
He told migrants that the suspension has been suspended and that MPP is back as he walked through the crowd at the base of the bridge.
Several people were still present when CBP tweeted the bridge would remain closed overnight.