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By: Dr. Alejandro Díaz-Bautista, Economist (Ph.D.)
- The United States follows health protocols at ports of entry during 2020.
- There are cases of up to 9 hours to cross the port of entry during August 2020.
Restrictions at the US-Mexico border continue and people are crossing in both directions for non-essential travel for things such as shopping, eating out, outings, and family visits.
This irresponsible attitude of some people is aggravating the health crisis due to the pandemic on both sides of the border between Mexico and the United States during August 2020.
“In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, non-essential travel has economic costs and health costs for the communities on the border of Mexico with the United States during 2020,” explained Dr. Alejandro Díaz-Bautista, international economist, as well as Research Professor at the Northern Border College (El Colef).
The economic analysis at the national level indicates that, during the fiscal year 2019, more than one million people crossed through the 328 ports or port of entries to the United States each day by land, air, and sea and international trade reached $11 billion dollars at the crossing of the United States borders.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, these numbers are expected to be lower by 2020. People must follow health protocols during the pandemic.
The use of masks or mouth covers will be an important element in achieving success for the reactivation of the border economy of Mexico and the United States at the end of 2020 and in 2021.
Following health protocols, the United States’ borders with Mexico and Canada will continue to be closed to non-essential traffic until September 21, 2020, at 11:59 p.m.
In the case of Mexico, the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) confirmed the partial closure of the land border through his social media accounts. “Non-essential” trips include trips that are touristic or recreational in nature.
The border community must remember that we are in the midst of a pandemic and the land border is open only for essential travel in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, following sanitary protocols is important (such as wearing a face mask or mouth cover), to try to reduce the possibility of coronavirus infections in 2020.
Last week there were very long lines at checkpoints and land border crossings from Mexico to the United States.
It is clear that there are many people in the border region who are not taking seriously the coronavirus pandemic that is experienced throughout the world during 2020.
The customs and border protection office (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) will notify about the application of new actions to intensify restrictions at border crossings between Mexico and the United States as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 pandemic. The vast majority of cross-border travel by US citizens and lawful permanent residents is for non-essential purposes in August 2020.
Last week, users on social media have reported about the long lines at the different checkpoints in Baja California, such as San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, and Mexicali.
Travelers seeking to cross from Tijuana to San Diego through the different ports of entry did up to 9 hours wait time in line last week after the new measures established by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to discourage crossings of non-essential travel and reduce the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus to the United States.
The same lines and wait times are expected throughout this weekend at the end of August 2020.
