US closes jobs, adds controls to Mexico’s border to contain coronavirus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States closes Friday lanes at selected ports of entry on the border with Mexico and will conduct more secondary checks to curb non-essential travel and the spread of coronavirus, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official said. (CBP) sei.

Since March, non-essential travel has been restricted to the border, but U.S. citizens and permanent residents can still enter Mexico into the United States. The new measures are aimed at those travelers, the CBP official said.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who faces election on November 3, has taken a series of sweeping steps to scale back immigration during the coronavirus pandemic, including emergency border rules that allow U.S. authorities to quickly deport migrants to the border arrested.

The United States leads the world with more than 174,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus, followed by Brazil with 112,000 and Mexico with 59,000, according to a Reuters census.

“We need people to think twice about non-essential journeys and ask themselves if the journey is worth risking their lives and the lives of others,” El Paso CBP spokesman Roger Maier said in a written statement.

CBP said it would take steps to reduce non-essential travel at more than a dozen border crossings in Texas, Arizona and California. The waiting times for passenger vehicles at those ports of entry on Friday night ranged from no waiting until several hours.

The Trump administration had proposed a measure to block U.S. citizens and residents from returning if they are suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, Reuters reported this month. The plan was blasted by some hospitals, U.S. expats and immigrant advocacy groups.

White House senior officials have voted against the proposal, according to two officials familiar with the consultation, though it remains unclear if it could be resurrected.