Plans for closings and reductions at border crossing announced by Mexican government

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Authorities in Mexico reported that they planned to reduce the staff of the National Institute of Migration (INM) at the borders, by 60% during the following week.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA (April 2, 2020).- Lane reductions and even gate closures on the California-Mexico border were announced by authorities to community leaders, following reductions and restrictions of the border crossing between Mexico and the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The president of the Smart Border Coalition, Gustavo de la Fuente said that this Wednesday April 1st, they had a call with the director of the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in San Diego, Pete Flores, who informed they are planning a shutdown of operations at the PedWest sentry box in San Ysidro.

“A measure that we saw coming because traffic has been greatly reduced,” said de la Fuente.

According to a newsletter from the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce, the closure of PedWest would be starting next Sunday, after an alleged 73% reduction in crosswalks and a 55% decrease in motorway crossings in California sentry boxes.

The San Ysidro sentry box would also have a temporary reduction in lanes for vehicular crossing, from that same day, according to the bulletin of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

The newsletter also indicated that as part of the new measures, the hours of operation of the sentry box of Tecate would also be reduced, which would go from 5 am to 10 pm to be from 5 am to 2 pm

While the Otay sentry box commercial crossing, and CBX operations would remain the same, the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce pointed out.

CBP told Telemundo 20 that this agency’s officials are in the planning stages and are continuing to coordinate with the community on both sides of the border about the proposed changes.

CBP said it will notify any changes as the information becomes available.

On the other hand, the authorities in Mexico reported that they planned to reduce the staff of the National Institute of Migration (INAMI) at the borders, by 60% during the following week.

“The crossing from the United States to Mexico would be open and if there were no influx they would see the possibility of closing it,” Manuel Marín, representative of INAMI, told Telemundo 20.

Source: Telemundo

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