Two freight rail bridges between Mexico and Texas are being closed by the Border Patrol to curb the “recent resurgence” of boxcars used by migrants.
It's not the first time the bridges have been closed, but the economic impact is severe: In September, a three-day closure left $1 billion worth of product on trains stuck on both sides.
The bridges to El Paso and Eagle Pass will close starting at 8 a.m. Monday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Sunday, its latest drastic measure to reduce the number of arrivals.
CBP said they were closing the bridge because smugglers were increasingly using the freight trains to transport their human cargo. The trains are extremely dangerous for migrants, with many clinging to the side walls and falling, losing limbs and breaking bones.
“CBP continues to increase all available resources to safely process migrants in response to increasing migrant encounters at the southwest border, fueled by smugglers spreading disinformation to exploit vulnerable individuals,” the agency said Sunday.
“After recently observing a resurgence in smuggling organizations transporting migrants on freight trains through Mexico, CBP is taking additional actions to increase staffing and address development-related issues, including in collaboration with Mexican authorities.”
In September of this year, migrants are transported through Mexico on freight trains. At least half a dozen fell and died or were seriously injured, forcing Mexico to halt the trains. The border crossing in Texas is currently closed due to the number of migrants
Dramatic footage shows thousands of migrants lining the train tracks three hours from the border in Mexico, hoping to catch a ride to the US route
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: FOX sources capture tens of thousands of migrants trying to catch a train in Mexico three hours south of Piedras Negras bound for the U.S. border, where BP agents are already being overwhelmed with unprecedented numbers @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/bnnF6gvgKm
– Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins) December 13, 2023
The latest video shows migrants lining up, hoping to catch a freight train about three hours south of Eagle Pass, Texas
They did not say how long the freight bridges would remain closed.
The move comes after a record number of migrant encounters were recorded earlier this month, with 12,000 people arrested in one day.
In the Tucson, Arizona area, there were 17,500 encounters in a single week – the highest weekly total ever recorded.
On Tuesday, dramatic video showed migrants lining up, hoping to catch a freight train about three hours south of Eagle Pass.
The migrants – including several children – stand next to the tracks as the train speeds through Piedras Negras, Mexico.
You can see the migrants looking for a way to jump on board. It is unclear whether anyone managed to get on board.
It's not the first time the trains have been stopped to stop migrants crossing the border and allow CBP officers to focus elsewhere.
In September, 60 northbound freight trains owned by Mexican company Ferromex were stopped south of Ciudad Juarez after about half a dozen migrants were killed or injured.
In response, Texas authorities closed the Eagle Pass crossing – the second largest in the US – for three days.
Union Pacific, which manages the line, said the stop would hold 24 trains totaling 2,400 cars north and south of the border.
An estimated $1 billion in products remained stuck at the border – agricultural goods, food, beverages; finished vehicles; consumer goods; and industrial products.
In recent weeks, CBP has closed the Lukeville port of entry in Arizona; a pedestrian entrance in San Diego; and a vehicle crossing in Eagle Pass.
The Lukeville decision has forced many trying to cross the border legally to consider crossing illegally rather than an eight-hour delay.
“There are so many people who are so upset when they see all these 10,000 illegals coming in one day, and they're coming through a wall that the cartel has punched a hole in,” said Robin Miller, who is in the lives nearby.
“And they just come in, come in.
“But us people with passports.” [who] “It’s legal to travel to the states, we can’t leave.”
Migrants are transported by the US Border Patrol after crossing the border wall from Mexico into the US as the number of migrants surges in the border town of Lukeville
Cynthia Lowe usually takes the legal route to visit her family, and now she might just be breaking the law like so many others are doing to be with them in time for Christmas.
“I'm seriously thinking about going through the hole in the wall and having my kids pick me up on the other side,” she said.
“I have one of two options. “I can go through the wall like everyone else does, or I can go through Nogales.”
The humanitarian and growing economic crises have led both Arizona senators to call on President Joe Biden to send National Guard troops to reopen the port of entry.
“For far too long, Arizona communities have paid the price for Washington’s failures at the border,” Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly said in a joint statement Tuesday.
“This decision is an unacceptable outcome that further destabilizes our border, endangers the safety of our communities and harms our economy.”
“Our ports of entry are important drivers of economic growth and security in our state, and it is critical that they are adequately staffed and resourced.”
Gov. Katie Hobbs has also asked Biden to redirect about 200 National Guard members already in the Tucson area to Lukeville.
In Arizona, where at least one entry point has been closed to legal traffic, Americans may try to return to the U.S. illegally rather than make an eight-hour round trip
The closure has turned what was supposed to be a 30 to 60 minute trip into a six to eight hour trip
“There are so many people who are so upset when they see all these 10,000 illegals coming in one day, and they're coming through a wall that the cartel has punched a hole in,” said Robin Miller, who is in the lives nearby
She has demanded $512 million from the federal government to repay the state's spending on the border crisis.
Now Biden may finally be ready to work with Republican leaders to implement what they want to do at the border.
Biden's opponents want him to combine a $100 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with more funding for the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration reform.
Their proposal would effectively reinstate Title 42 and allow officials to suspend asylum rights without a public health emergency, just seven months after the Biden administration permanently ended the pandemic-era policy first introduced by then-President Donald Trump.
The move infuriated many Democrats in Congress, including progressive Squad members.
Biden said during a press conference at the White House on Tuesday that he had “already offered a compromise” to Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Despite the reports, Biden said at the White House on Tuesday that Republican lawmakers were “holding Ukraine's funding hostage to impose extreme Republican partisan policies on the border, that's not the way it works.”
El Paso border officials are already stretched to their limits as just over 4,000 migrants are detained in the city
The city says it encounters nearly 1,000 migrants every day, most of whom are released
The video shows the migrants crossing the border through several locations after crossing the Rio Grande
A migrant family from Venezuela reacts after breaking through a barbed wire barricade into the United States after waiting for hours on a Rio Grande riverbank
At least 20 House Democrats — including caucus members — responded to X in a back-and-forth last week that they would vote against a supplemental immigration reform bill
According to a new report from CBS News, the Biden administration told lawmakers that the president is considering tougher policies at the southern border that would address some of those Republican demands — including streamlining deportations and expanding detentions and expulsions.
Four people familiar with the talks said the White House informed Senate Democrats that it could support a sweeping immigration policy change as part of Biden's negotiations.
If approved, the new package would also include money to strengthen border controls and hire more immigration officers.
Republicans have made the border crisis and easing immigration policies the focus of their criticism of the Biden White House.