Clasping exhausted children, desperate migrants tried to make their way to the United States Thursday before the end of the pandemic-era health rule known as Title 42.

In Texas, members of the National Guard were deployed to the Mexico border as part of their state's response to the rush, bearing guns as migrants came with dozing children, and clothes soaked by crossing the Rio Grande.

Moving between border fences festooned with razor wire, the migrants sheltered from the grueling sun beneath sheets of white cloth.

One shackled migrant smiled as he was taken by bus to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement repatriation flight to Guatemala. Nearby, members of the Texas National Guards unfurled more wire.

Outside Matamoros, Mexico, migrants stood on the bank of the Rio Grande, blocked from entering the U.S.

The migrants from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and nations in Central America, among others, were driven by fear that it could be harder for them to stay on U.S. soil once the restrictions are lifted.

One migrant from Colombia gave a blanket to a father and son, also from Colombia. The group had been camping just across from California for days, waiting to apply for asylum.