United States: Business associations and railroad firms are pressuring the US government to reopen trade routes on the Texas-Mexico border after officials closed two crossings because of an uptick in migrant crossings in recent days.
Record High Migrant Numbers
An internal agency reported that Reuters seen states that some 10,800 migrants were held by the US Border Patrol on Monday at the southwest border. About 40 percent of travelers were families or kids traveling alone. The number of migrants encountered on Monday was close to or at a record high for a single day, according to several current and former US officials.
“The encounter levels we are currently seeing across the southwest border are presenting a serious challenge to the men and women of CBP,” acting US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Business associations and railroad firms are pressuring the US government to reopen trade routes on the Texas-Mexico border after officials closed two crossings because of an uptick in migrant crossings in recent days.
Humanitarian Concerns at the Border
On Dec. 18, US border authorities closed rail bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso. Business groups and railroad operators are urging authorities to reopen rail bridges in order to “redirect personnel” to process migrants crossing the border.

“Shutting down rail traffic through Eagle Pass and El Paso will inflict significant economic harm,” Neil Bradley, chief policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement to Reuters while saying, “Halting the legal movement of commerce will do nothing to secure the border.”
According to the US Department of Transportation, train freight between the ports of El Paso and Eagle Pass exceeded US$3 billion in total in both directions in October. That made up about 4 percent of all commerce that month between the United States and Mexico. In both directions, US$8.4 billion in revenue has been generated in total rail freight between the US and Mexico, as per the US Department of Transportation, compared with US$51.2 billion carried by trucks, according to Reuters.
“The urgency of reopening these crossings and restoring rail service between the two nations cannot be overstated,” the president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads, Ian Jefferies, said in a statement on the trade group’s website.
“Every day the border remains closed unleashes a cascade of delay across operations on both sides of the border, impacting customers and ultimately consumers,” Jefferies said.
2024 presidential elections and border crossings in the US
Biden is seeking re-election in 2024. The surge in border crossings coincides with Democratic President Joe Biden’s efforts to reach an agreement with Republican lawmakers that would combine greater border security in the United States with military assistance for Israel and Ukraine.
With the upcoming Christmas holidays, a bipartisan group of senators negotiating a compromise has yet to come to an agreement. New arrivals in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, have increased significantly in the recent few days as migrants – many of whom are families with small children, have come to the border by bus, atop cargo trains, on foot, and even by bicycle.
On Tuesday, hundreds of migrants in Eagle Pass waited outside by the river to be processed by US border guards, some of them were covered in blankets.

Union Pacific (UNP.N) and Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKa.N) BNSF Railway, two of the nation’s largest freight railroad companies, warned of supply chain disruptions ahead of the Christmas holiday due to the railway bridge closures.
“Every day of closure increases the impact to the supply chain for critical commodities, including automobiles, industrial products, and grain,” Lena Kent, spokeswoman for BNSF Railway, said in a statement to Reuters.
Industry Voices and Concerns
BNSF and Union Pacific declined to comment on the value of goods affected by the closings.
Meanwhile, Union Pacific said in a statement on its website that a range of products – including grain, beer, metals, cement, and automotive parts – have been halted due to the closures. The closed bridges account for about 45 percent of its cross-border shipments, and the overall economic impact of the closure will be more than US$200 million per day.
Besides this, on Tuesday, Mexico’s top farm lobby CNA also expressed concerns over “huge losses” expected for agricultural trade due to the closure.
The restrictions were made to allow workers to process migrant arrivals. This month, US border authorities shuttered two pedestrian crossings—one in distant Lukeville, Arizona, and the other outside San Diego, California—in addition to the railroad crossings.
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