US-Mexico border railroad crossings reopen after five days

The US railroad crossings at the Mexico border have reopened after an influx of immigrants caused Customs and Border Protection to shut the international crossings for five days. 

The Biden administration acted in response to calls from the rail industry and shippers, the Association of American Railroads said Friday in a statement. The rail closings at El Paso and Eagle Pass in Texas had disrupted entire supply chains and crimped trade between the US and Mexico.

“In the face of the unprecedented humanitarian crisis, CBP has been working under exceptionally difficult circumstances, but these ill-advised closures were a blunt force tool that did nothing to bolster law enforcement capacity,” said Ian Jefferies, chief executive officer of the AAR, in the statement. 

Union Pacific Corp. and BNSF Railway Co., a unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., move about 24 trains a day through the crossings carrying beer, grain, autos and auto parts, chemicals and other goods, the association said. 

“These crossings are critical gateways for international commerce, and the closures had real-world impacts for families, businesses, and our customers on both sides of the border,” Union Pacific said in a separate statement. “We will restore normal operations as quickly as possible as we work through the five-day backlog of shipments.”

CBP announced that the crossings would reopen at 2 pm New York time, and explained in a statement why the influx of migrants forced them to transfer personnel from processing trains to helping their colleagues. 

The agency said in a statement that “transnational criminal organizations” that misled and victimized migrants had exacerbated the number of people trying to cross into the US. A shift in trends of the smuggling gangs forced the agency to “surge personnel and address this concerning development” and work in coordination with Mexico. 

Not all crossings have reopened. Passenger vehicles at Eagle Pass can’t cross. The port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, and the Morely Gate crossing in Nogales, Arizona, will remain shut, the agency said. 

The grain industry was pleased to see the crossings reopen, but called for the situation not to be repeated since the closures disrupted trade that’s “critical” for things like food security, according to a statement from the National Grain and Feed Association, and the North American Export Grain Association. The US shipped $28.5 billion of foodstuffs to Mexico in 2022.  

“We call on the governments of the United States and Mexico to continue to dialogue and to put in place measures on both sides of the border to ensure this does not happen again,” the statement said.