EL PASO, Texas — U.S. officials are halting freight train operations across the U.S.-Mexico border at two locations because of a surge in migrant traffic, the El Paso Times reports.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency will temporarily suspend the freight crossings at Eagle Pass and El Paso — the No. 2 and No. 3 international gateways in Texas — as of 8 a.m. local time on Monday, Dec. 18, the agency said. It is shifting staff to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody and processing those individuals while prioritizing border security.
“After observing a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains, CBP is taking additional actions to surge personnel and address this concerning development, including in partnership with Mexican authorities,” the agency said in a statement quoted by the newspaper.
El Paso’s migrant crisis information dashboard reported more than 1,500 migrant encounters by CBP on Sunday, along with 2,695 migrants in custody and 363 releases, the Times reports.
The agency previously closed the Eagle Pass gateway in September because of the migrant crisis [see “Second-busiest Texas-Mexico rail border crossing shut down …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 21, 2023]. Union Pacific and BNSF exchange traffic with Ferromex at that location.
That’s funny, I keep hearing the boarder is closed and we need to send more money to Ukraine.
Maybe Mumbles ought to have Mayorkas go down there and explain that there is no problem, nothing to see here folks. We should just stop harassing the illegals.
We need troops on the border to put an end to this nonsense.
And what would these troops do? Shoot at migrants?
More nonsense from CBP, another federal entity given waaaay too much authority post 9/11….