McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are remaining watchful at South Texas ports of entry after hundreds of asylum-seekers on Sunday stormed an international bridge leading to El Paso in West Texas, officials said.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is cognizant of the events in El Paso on Sunday. We continue to maintain close communications with our government of Mexico partners and continue to maintain a constant state of readiness to keep our facilities, workforce and the traveling public secure while facilitating lawful trade and travel,” a CBP official told Border Report on Monday.
The migrants did not enter the United States, officials said, after barricades were put up to prevent the crowd that had amassed in the middle of the Paso Del Norte International Bridge on Sunday afternoon, which connects El Paso to Juarez, Mexico.
Thousands of asylum-seekers have been sent back to Juarez, under Title 42, a public health order that prevents migrants from claiming asylum at U.S. ports in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Traffic was shut down and restricted at three bridges in El Paso for a period on Sunday, but reopened in the evening, CBP officials in El Paso said.
A majority of the Texas-Mexico land ports of entry are in South Texas, in Laredo, and in the Rio Grande Valley in the counties of Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron on the Gulf of Mexico.
CBP reports no incident at any of those bridges, so far, and traffic is moving despite busy Spring Break travel in the region.
“There are not any significant impacts on travel expected, apart from temporary delays for periodic mobile field force exercises, which remain ongoing,” the CBP official said.
