Is the US/Mexican Border Closed for Trade?

Trade and Tariffs

Material provided by the NAM

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on March 27 announced plans to temporarily reassign border agents from specific areas (under field offices in San Diego, Tucson, El Paso and Laredo) to assist border patrol processing facilities “to process, care for, and transport individuals in custody.”  While operational details about the flow of commercial goods across the US-Mexico border are still emerging, initial reports indicate changes that could impact commercial traffic across the border:

Nogales, AZ: Customs and Border Protection’s Tucson field office on March 29 sent a notice out to stakeholders indicating that Sunday commercial truck processing through Nogales’s Mariposa would be suspended after March 31, 2019, citing the “unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis” at the border that required ports to begin “realigning their workforce and limiting or discontinuing some services.”  (Subsequent searches as of 12:00 pm EDT April 2nd indicate the closure of 3 of 8 lanes at the Mariposa crossing may be closed.)

Other ports: Although there is no evidence of similar direction being sent to other ports, CBP’s Border Wait Times, an online site with real-time updates on wait times at border crossings, indicates a number of other ports where the commercial crossing lanes are closed (reasons unspecified) as of 12:00 pm EDT April 2nd, including (but not limited to):

  • El Paso, TX (4 of 6 lanes closed on the Bridge of the Americas; 6 of 8 lanes closed at Ysleta crossing)
  • Brownsville, TX (3 of 4 lanes closed at Los Indios crossing; 1 of 4 lanes closed at Veterans International)
  • Santa Teresa, NM (2 of 3 lanes closed)
  • Otay Mesa, CA (2 of 10 lanes closed)
  • Laredo, TX (2 of 12 lanes closed at the World Trade Bridge; 2 of 4 lanes at Colombia Solidarity crossing)
  • Tecate, CA (both lanes closed)

Other border crossings may also be experiencing delays, including CBP reports of notable delays at Laredo, TX (Nuevo Laredo); Otay Mesa, CA (Tijuana); Hidalgo, TX (Reynosa); and Progreso, TX (Nuevo Progreso) and member-reported questions about delays in additional crossings, such as El Paso, TX (Ciudad Juarez).