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12/22/2023
After five days of closures at Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced today that the agency will reopen the key international rail crossings this afternoon, the Association of American Railroads announced.
With each passing day, shippers, communities and the larger supply chain experienced increasing impacts as rail shipments remained halted at the border, AAR officials said in a press release.
The Biden administration made the correct decision to reopen the crossings to keep goods moving between the United States and Mexico, said AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies. The CBP closed the crossings in response to the ongoing migrant crisis at the border.
"In the face of the unprecedented humanitarian crisis, CBP has been working under exceptionally difficult circumstances, but these ill-advised closures were a blunt force tool that did nothing to bolster law enforcement capacity," Jefferies said. "As CBP continues their work to address this crisis, railroads strongly encourage the agency to abandon this tactic moving forward in favor of approaches that are capable of meaningfully enhancing its response capabilities."
Jefferies added: “With the crossings reopened, railroads are focused on closely partnering with CBP to maintain the secure, reliable service that customers deserve and our nation requires."
The railroads most impacted by the closures were BNSF Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad.
UP today released the following statement: "These crossings are critical gateways for international commerce, and the closures had real-world impacts for families, businesses and our customers on both sides of the border. We will restore normal operations as quickly as possible as we work through the five-day backlog of shipments holding to cross the border."
BNSF announced this morning that it has issued a temporary permit embargo affecting southbound traffic moving through Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas to Mexico.
"This embargo impacts all shipments excluding automotive and intermodal. Automotive and intermodal shipments, which are being managed through alternate means, are not covered by this embargo," BNSF officials said in a customer advisory.
The embargo’s purpose "is to ensure the fluidity of traffic avoid congestion as rail operations resume across the border," BNSF’s advisory stated.
"While this embargo action may lead to some additional disruption to our affected customers in the short term, we are confident that this measure will provide the additional capacity needed to expedite recovery and resume cross-border operations once the interchanges are reopened," BNSF officials added.
BNSF will issue permits on a case-by-case basis.