Some 22,000 migrants in Mexico are housed in temporary shelters waiting to cross the border into the United States, CNN reports.

Twenty-two thousand migrants in Mexican shelters are waiting to cross into the United States, the publication said.

Authorities in the U.S. state of Texas, bordering Mexico, are building a fence near the city of El Paso to limit border crossings. According to the TV channel, they were able to build about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of fences.

El Paso itself has a significant number of refugees who have entered U.S. territory. Migrants sleep on the streets on the pavement in cold weather, as local churches and shelters are overcrowded.

Meanwhile, according to the network, the number of asylum applications pending in the U.S. has reached a record 1.6 million, showing a seven-fold increase in the 10 years since 2012.

The flow of refugees to the U.S. is expected to increase after a legal provision that allowed for the immediate deportation of illegal migrants in the interest of fighting the coronavirus is ended. President Joe Biden's administration has opposed its extension. The legal rule, introduced under Donald Trump's presidency, was set to expire on Wednesday, December 21, but Chief Justice John Roberts extended it while a petition from the state of Arizona to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was pending.