The U.S. government is expected to impose greater restrictions on the Mexican border for another 30 days, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
In a message posted on the embassy’s Twitter account, Mexico’s foreign firm said Mexico had “proposed to the United States” an extension of the restrictions, which limits the non-essential across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Restrictions are expected to continue until 21 August, according to the embassy.
It’s been four months since the Department of Homeland Security limited the non-essentials to the country’s northern and southern borders. The initial order came into force on March 21 and has been extended several times for 30 days at a time, as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen in Mexico and the United States.
For its part, DHS announced its extensions one or two days after the restrictions expired.
On Tuesday, a CBP spokesman told El Paso Times in an email that “non-essential U.S. land border restrictions will remain in effect until July 21, 2020, unless they are replaced or canceled.”
Traffic on the El Paso bridges has slowed dramatically since restrictions took effect, falling to approximately 300,000 passenger vehicle crossings in April from more than 1.2 million in the same month of 2018.
Border restrictions prohibit cross-border visits for tourism and recreation purposes and allow “essential” crossings for those running in one country or another, or for medical or emergency control purposes.
The Mexican government has largely not limited traffic to its land border.
Lauren Villagran can be reached at [email protected].