Immigrants who crossed the border without documentation withdrew Friday, the first day after Title 42 was lifted, two US Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News.

The US Customs and Border Protection apprehended between 7,500 and 8,000 undocumented immigrants on Friday compared with about 11,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday and 10,000 on Thursday, officials said.

These numbers include both immigrants crossing illegally between ports of entry (more than 7,000 on Friday) and those lawfully presenting themselves at ports of entry without proper entry documents.

Covid-era restrictions that allowed immigration officials to quickly turn away immigrants at the US-Mexico border expired at 11:59 p.m. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that people who used a legal path to cross the border would be «presumptively ineligible for asylum.»

He said agents were ready to humanely process and remove people who do not have legal permission to be in the United States. «The border is not open,» she said earlier this week. «Individuals who do not use available legal pathways to enter the US now face harsher consequences.»