soil to begin the legal process to request protection in the United States.Īfter a pandemic policy shut down asylum processing at ports of entry completely, asylum seekers desperate to bring their cases to the United States increasingly turned to crossing without permission - often taking risky routes over the border wall, through desert, mountains and rivers, or on easily capsized panga boats in the ocean - to try to reach safety. Rather, he said, they will look for “suspicious automobiles.”ĬBP began placing officers on the limit line after asylum seekers, mostly Russians, began using the car lanes last year as a way to reach U.S. However, he did not anticipate that they will ask for documents from every traveler. Only INM officials will have authority to ask travelers for proof of documents necessary to enter the port of entry, according to González Gutiérrez. Those who don’t have proper documents, Mexican officials said, will be taken to a Mexican immigration station for processing. Officials from Mexico’s immigration agency, the Instituto Nacional de Migración, or INM, will run the inspection point and will be accompanied by security forces working in shifts, among them the Tijuana municipal police, state police from Baja California and the Mexican National Guard. (Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune) The inspection point will operate 24 hours a day. It will be set up in both the Ready Lane line and the trusted traveler lanes used by SENTRI holders roughly 100 yards from the border and near a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the waiting lanes, according to Mexican authorities. Officials announced the pilot program Wednesday after a meeting among González Gutiérrez, Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero, Consul General of the United States in Tijuana Tom Reott, and others. “I’m pleased that they are taking new actions to speed up crossings,” he said. Gustavo de la Fuente, executive director of the Smart Border Coalition, called the pilot program a wise decision, since it could lead to the opening of more lanes. “We are staffing quite a bit more workload with the same resources,” San Ysidro Port Director Mariza Marin told the Union-Tribune in September, noting that agency hiring suffered at the onset of the pandemic. The crossing has yet to reopen, with CBP citing limited resources as the reason. “The only thing we’re doing is protecting the infrastructure that we have to accelerate crossings, reduce wait times and ensure that this port of entry is used for what it should be used for.”īusiness communities and commuters have for years complained about the extended wait times at the border, particularly since the pandemic closing of PedWest, a pedestrian crossing near the Las Americas outlets on the U.S. “We’re not keeping or impeding anyone from requesting asylum,” González Gutiérrez said. González Gutiérrez emphasized that the idea of training Mexican officials to guard the zone is to “accelerate the flow of traffic during a busy season” and that they are meant to discourage “irregular activities.” “Five or 10 years ago it would’ve been unthinkable to see the Mexicans say ‘yes’ to something like this.” “Mexico for decades did not want to be seen as an auxiliary or an appendage of U.S. screen people en route to its territory is part of a larger change that has happened over the past several years in the two countries’ relationship, according to Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America.
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