Border cargo operations restored, but car crossings at El Paso-area ports remain difficult
Editor's note: This story was updated with an additional comment about long truck waits Tuesday at the Santa Teresa port of entry.
Federal officials Tuesday restored normal operations at cargo facilities at El Paso international bridges, but wait times for passenger vehicles to cross from Juárez to El Paso continue to be longer than normal.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection resumed cargo-inspection operations at the Bridge of the Americas on Tuesday morning after closing the bridge’s cargo facility Friday so CBP officers could help process the influx of migrants at area ports of entry.
Regular cargo operations also were restored at the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge after the CBP reduced staffing there Friday to also help process migrants.
That resulted in truck crossing waits of up to seven hours at the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge, one trucking company operator reported. Long truck crossing times also were reported at the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, port of entry. That increases costs for trucking companies and others involved in cross-border trade and makes it more difficult to meet delivery schedules, those in the industry have said.
Roger Maier, a CBP spokesperson, said in an email that the migrant "situation here is beginning to stabilize, and therefore cargo lots can be fully reopened. When the situation fully stabilizes, then the port officers from the passenger (crossing) environment will return to their ports as well.”
People crossing El Paso-area ports of entry from Juárez to El Paso via motor vehicle lanes and pedestrian lanes “may experience longer than normal crossing times and should plan accordingly,” he said.
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Commercial truck crossing times were at 10 minutes for the Bridge of the Americas and 30 minutes at the Ysleta-Zaragoza port of entry at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the CBP port wait time phone app. The reported wait time at Santa Teresa was 90 minutes.
But Miriam Kotowski, president of Tecma Transportation Services, which has more than 100 trucks cross daily from Juárez to El Paso, said the CBP app was wrong because the company's trucks still were taking up to seven hours to cross the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge Tuesday morning — the same waiting times as Friday and Monday.
The company had shifted much of its cargo shipments to Santa Teresa because of the Bridge of the Americas closure and the extended waits at the Ysleta port. It was taking three to five hours to cross the Santa Teresa port Tuesday morning, she said.
Maier said a truck accident Tuesday on the Mexican side of the Santa Teresa port caused delays.
"Obviously something like that is outside of (our) control," he said in an email.
Tecma was advised around 7 p.m., Monday of the restored cargo services at the El Paso ports, but shifting cargo away from Santa Teresa takes time because required CBP paperwork for crossing shipments at that port was already in place, she said.
However, the company Tuesday began sending more shipments to the Bridge of the Americas, she said.
Meanwhile, waits for regular traffic to cross the three El Paso international bridges have substantially grown in recent days because of CBP's staffing changes.
Some people on the Reporte de Puentes Facebook page reported more than two-hour waits Tuesday morning at the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge, while the CBP app showed times to be much less there and at the two other El Paso ports, as well as at Santa Teresa.
Crossing times will fluctuate depending on the time of day and the ports of entry, Maier said.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Feds' cargo inspections restored at Bridge of Americas, Zaragoza ports
