Renewed migrant surge forces closure of Texas border bridge

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Amid a new increase in migrant crossings, federal officials announced the partial closure of International Bridge I in Eagle Pass, Texas, to traffic entering the country from Mexico.

The closure was effective at 3 p.m. Monday and will continue indefinitely, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Northbound crossings have been suspended, while vehicles traveling from the U.S. to Mexico will not be affected.

Bridge I in Eagle Pass services passenger vehicles, while the city’s Bridge II, also known as the Camino Real Bridge, remains open for cargo trucks.

“CBP’s Office of Field Operations will temporarily suspend vehicle processing operations at Eagle Pass International Bridge 1 … [and] reduce vehicle processing in Lukeville, Arizona, in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody,” CBP officials said in a statement. “In response to this influx in encounters, we will continue to surge all available resources to expeditiously and safely process migrants.”

In September, migrant surges forced bridge closures in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, affecting cargo operations at both ports of entry as border agents shifted to immigration duties.

On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced it would begin safety inspections for all trucks coming from Mexico at the commercial border crossings in Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas.

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“CBP Laredo Field Office has been advised Texas DPS will begin safety vehicle inspections on all tractor-trailers … this afternoon and do not have an end date,” Armando Taboada, assistant director of field operations at CBP’s Laredo Field Office, said in an email to the trade community on Tuesday. “We anticipate impact to the north bound flow of trade.”

Taboada said six nearby ports of entry will be able to process shipments that may be diverted due to long border crossing times as a result of DPS safety checks. The other ports of entry in the vicinity include Brownsville, Roma, Progreso, Rio Grande, Hidalgo and Laredo.

The safety checkpoints launched by the Texas DPS are in addition to commercial truck inspections conducted by customs inspectors in Mexico and with CBP and the U.S. Department of Transportation, further slowing truck crossings because each truck has to stop for an additional examination.

The DPS inspections that began Tuesday are at least the fifth time since April 2022 that the agency has implemented the state-run commercial checkpoints.

From Sept. 20 to Oct. 19, the Texas DPS instituted cargo truck safety inspections at commercial crossings in Laredo, El Paso, Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Tornillo, Texas. The inspections caused hourslong wait times for truckers crossing from Mexico to the U.S.

DPS officials said the renewed inspections were aimed at disrupting cartel activity at the border.

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“We hope that frequent enhanced commercial vehicle safety inspections will help deter cartel smuggling activity along our southern border while increasing the safety of our roadways,” DPS Director Steven McCraw said in a statement to the El Paso Times.

Trucking officials in Mexico said the safety inspections by the Texas DPS stranded 19,000 trucks carrying about $1.9 billion in goods destined for the U.S. at the Mexican border.

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