SAN DIEGO (AP) – A Trump administration crackdown on non-essentials from Mexico amid the coronavirus pandemic has created huge bottlenecks at the border, with drivers reporting waiting up to 10 hours to enter states. United.
A worker for a company that provides aid to companies with Mexican operations saw the massive queues Sunday night from his home in Tijuana, Mexico. A US citizen, he took cover at midnight for his 8-hour shift Monday in San Diego and was 90 minutes late.
“I hope it’s just a new company that comes and goes and gets a little simplified down the road,” said Ross Baldwin, the head of the guy and president of TACNA Services Inc.
US citizens and legal citizens cannot be denied access under a partial ban the Trump administration imposed in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Going to work, school and medical appointments are essential trips, but shopping, dining or socializing is not.
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Andrea Casillas, who works at a Bed Bath & Beyond store in San Diego and lives in Tijuana because it’s cheaper, waited 4 hours on Monday.
“You have to pay (to travel from Mexico), but it’s reasonable,” Casillas said. “It goes too far. “
The crackdown comes after U. S. Customs and Border Protection said it interviewed about 100,000 travelers from Mexico by car or on foot and found that 63% of U. S. citizens and legal citizens had traveled for reasons that were essential. .
On Friday, the firm began redirecting staff at 14 larger crossings in California, Arizona, and Texas to take others on weekday mornings when a must-have item is at its heaviest, resulting in wonderful endorsements. weekends.
Unusually smooth traffic Tuesday, with masked pedestrians keeping a short distance from each other. Delays are expected to increase on weekends and at night, affecting other people who go to the bevery or restaurants. Expectations soared across the border last weekend, the California crossings hit hardest.
The measures do not apply to the Canadian border, which is also subject to the nonessential ban. Air shipping is not affected.
The lines that snaked through the streets of Tijuana last weekend were the longest many citizens have seen, posing demanding situations for drivers desperate for a bathroom break.
Tijuana police said other people were running out of gas. An 87-year-old woman died of a downtown attack in her car while waiting to cross the nation’s busiest border crossing in San Diego on Sunday.
Other angry people caught in traffic lit up social media and posted photos and videos taken from their cars. One of them, Yadir Melérez, said he waited five hours to get to the boxes on Monday.
“The crossing is slowed down to annoy other people on vacations or non-essential trips!” wrote in a text message. “The challenge is that those of us who went to painting are hurt!”
Anne Maricich, deputy director of cashier operations for CBP in San Diego, said the wait in California peaked at six hours on the agency’s tally. Witnesses reported longer waits.
Taco merchant Christian Mendoza said a visitor he met Monday morning told him he waited seven hours. CBP officials postponed the week’s jam from the weekend. The lines were so short Tuesday that Mendoza hadn’t done a bachelor sale in 3 hours.
Before the pandemic, about 200,000 more people entered the United States at the California-Mexico crossings, according to CBP. The daily average fell to around 70,000 people after the ban announced in March, but has since climbed to around 120,000 people.
CBP strives to ease restrictions as border economies that depend on Mexican consumers are increasing pressure. US Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, says downtown Laredo, in his district, is a “ghost town. “
Jason Wells, executive director of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, said that 13% of businesses in the domain near the San Diego-Tijuana Passage have closed for smart and those that are open have noticed that their revenues fell by more From the half.
Wells wrote to members that “arbitrary border restrictions and punitive measures opposed to those that are not consistent with a fanciful definition of ‘essential’ do more harm than good. “
CBP emphasizes public considerations.
“We want other people to think twice about non-essential travel and whether vacations are worth risking their lives and the lives of others,” said CBP spokesman Rusty Payne.
Christopher Landau, the US ambassador to Mexico, said that many other people were crossing the border to go to families, shop or dine.
“So irresponsible makes the fitness crisis worse,” he wrote on Twitter.
CBP is working with commercial teams and fitness officials in California to minimize the impact, Maricich said.
“It’s a very tricky balance right now,” he said.
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