CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Americans who regularly cross the border from Mexico reported long wait times to re-enter the United States on Monday after U.S. officials imposed new COVID-19-related restrictions on cross-border travel by U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
The government closed lanes at select ports of entry on the border and began conducting more secondary checks to limit non-essential travel and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) representative said on Friday.
According to CBP data, wait times at some border crossings have doubled or tripled. Many crossing points now have only one or two lanes of traffic open. On Monday, border-crossers reported wait times of up to 5-6 hours.
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Christopher Landau, said “substantial delays” over the weekend were due to border agents focusing on “essential travel,” and said many people were crossing for other reasons such as shopping, dining and visiting families.
“Such irresponsible behavior is exacerbating the health crisis,” he said on Twitter.
Jess Herr, 30, a US citizen who lives on the Mexican border of the city of Tijuana and works at a place to eat in San Diego, Southern California, said she regularly woke up at four in the morning and crossed an hour to take their turn. When he saw the long line of cars on Monday, he made the decision to cross on foot, he still had to wait five hours to cross the border.
On the Córdoba Bridge that connects the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez with El Paso, Texas, only two lanes were open for motorists. Border personnel who waited around 45 minutes told Reuters that they had waited more than three hours to cross and that some were late for work.
Melissa Reyes, executive leader of Border Partners, a nonprofit organization, said she waited 4. 5 hours to return to the United States this weekend after shopping in Puerto Palomas, Mexico. Normally the waiting time would be 15-20 minutes.
The new restrictions announced last week would prove difficult for others whose lives cross the border, he said. “It’s going to be pretty devastating,” he said.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the busiest land border in the world.
Before the coronavirus border restrictions began in March, more than 950,000 people entered the United States from Mexico on foot or by car on a typical day.
President Donald Trump has rolled out a series of sweeping policies to curb legal and illegal immigration in recent months, saying those measures are to restrict the spread of the coronavirus or keep American workers’ jobs.
In March, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to ban nonessentials across their shared borders, but the restrictions still allowed US citizens and permanent citizens to return to the United States.
Report through José Luis González in Ciudad Juárez; Additional information via Mimi Dwyer in Los Angeles, Lizbeth Díaz in Mexico City and Julio-Cesar Chavez in Washington; Editing via Ross Colvin, Alistair Bell and Leslie Adler
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