Paso Del Norte Bridge blocked after more than 100 Cuban migrants show up at El Paso border
Daniel Borunda
An El Paso-Juárez border bridge was blocked Tuesday overnight when more than 100 Cubans and other migrants tired of waiting in Mexico showed up seeking asylum in the United States.
The crowd dispersed before dawn and things appeared to be back to normal Wednesday at the Paso Del Norte Bridge, which connects the downtowns of Juárez and El Paso.
The Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols, also known MPP and the "Remain in Mexico" policy, requires most asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings before a U.S. immigration judge.
Migrants on the bridge Tuesday night told Mexican news outlets that they were tired of being jobless and victimized while waiting in Juárez, which has had more than 1,600 homicides this year and is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico.
"Biden, Biden," several migrants chanted, referring to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, while approaching the border at the crest of the bridge over the Rio Grande, reported the Diario de Juárez newspaper.
The migrants had heard a false rumor that they would be allowed to enter the United States, Juárez news outlets reported.
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Some news accounts reported that as many as 200 migrants were at the bridge on the chilly, moonlit night.
Shortly after 9 p.m., the bridge was shut down by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with riot shields. The road was blocked by concrete barricades topped with rows of concertina wire at the top of the bridge.
CBP officers and a Special Response Team were deployed "to deter any potential large scale incursion of people who had gathered in Mexico earlier in the evening," agency spokesman Roger Maier said.
The Paso Del Norte Bridge, also known as the Santa Fe Bridge, handles U.S.-bound vehicle traffic and pedestrians traveling north and south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
There was no incursion but U.S.-bound pedestrian and vehicle crossings were stopped overnight.
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Pedestrian traffic resumed about 4 a.m. and the barricades were removed and vehicular traffic re-started about 6 a.m. after the crowd on the Mexican side had dispersed, Maier said.
Over the last two years, there have been similar shutdowns of the Paso Del Norte Bridge when large groups of refugees show up and CBP fears the border could be overrun.
The controversial Migrant Protection Protocols, began in the San Diego-Tijuana area before expanding to other border cities. More than 20,000 asylum seekers have been sent to Juárez to wait since MPP was implemented in El Paso in early 2019.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.
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