U.S. Customs and Border Protection resumed full commercial operations Thursday at an international bridge in Eagle Pass, Texas, as well as two Mexico crossings in Arizona. CBP said it also was reopening an international pedestrian border crossing in San Diego.
An influx of migrants arriving in November along the U.S.-Mexico border prompted the agency to redirect personnel to assist U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody.
Resuming full operations Thursday are:
- Eagle Pass, Bridge No. 1.
- Lukeville, Arizona, port of entry.
- Nogales, Arizona, Morley Gate border crossing.
- San Diego, San Ysidro’s Pedestrian West border crossing.
The resumption of operations reflects a drop in migrant crossings that peaked last month, according to Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner. Miller said that illegal crossings had reached as many as 10,000 migrants a day in December, according to the Associated Press.
In Eagle Pass, the port’s Bridge No. 1 had been suspended to northbound passenger vehicle traffic since Nov. 27. Bridge I in Eagle Pass services passenger vehicles, while the city’s Bridge II, also known as the Camino Real Bridge, remained open for cargo trucks.
The closure of Bridge I affected commercial cargo truck movements carrying shipments from Mexico to the U.S., increasing wait times to more than two hours on some days when trucks normally face no delays.
Along with the disruption from migrants, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) began safety inspections on Nov. 28 for all cargo trucks arriving from Mexico in Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas.
The Texas DPS continues to conduct safety inspections on all commercial tractor-trailers coming through Eagle Pass, border officials said.
“The Port of Eagle Pass will experience long commercial crossing and wait times because of the Texas DPS safety inspection truck exams occurring right outside CBP’s import cargo facilities,” Armando Taboada, assistant director of field operations at CBP’s Laredo Field Office, said in an email to the trade community on Tuesday. “The long Texas DPS safety inspection truck exam lines prevent the commercial trucks from exiting CBP’s import cargo facilities and accessing Texas roadways.”
DPS officials said the renewed inspections were aimed at disrupting cartel activity at the border.
“We hope that frequent enhanced commercial vehicle safety inspections will help deter cartel smuggling activity along our southern border while increasing the safety of our roadways,” DPS Director Steven McCraw said in a statement to the El Paso Times.
Homero Balderas, general manager for the city of Eagle Pass International Bridge System, said the Texas DPS inspections continue to negatively impact freight movements through the port.
“We were hopeful the news of reopening Bridge 1 would get them to tone down the inspections but that wasn’t the case,” Balderas told FreightWaves. “Hopefully soon they will react and allow us to return to normal.”
Cargo truck wait times at the Eagle Pass port of entry were one over an hour as of midmorning Thursday.
During the month of December, Eagle Pass processed 12,115 cargo trucks, a 27% year-over-year decrease compared to the same month in 2022.
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