Photo: Manuel Ocaño / Impremedia
By: Manuel Ocaño / Special for Real America News
Friday, September 6
They may not ask for proof of vaccination to cross the border
Border inspectors may not require proof of covid vaccination 19 to all people who, since November 8, cross with a visitor visa from Mexico, but all must carry these proofs in case they request them .
Neither will children under 17 year old.
Both are data provided at a press conference by the officer in charge of the San Ysidro checkpoint, Moisés Castillo, to clarify what is expected now that the restrictions on non-essential border crossings are going to end, after 19 closing months, as a measure to prevent infections during the pandemic.
The agent said that proof of vaccination should only be presented if an inspector at the border He asks for them, but he clarified that “people should not wait for them to request them, if they can verbally inform that they have already been vaccinated.”
In Mexico there is concern about whether people who were vaccinated with doses of CanSino from China will be able to cross and Sputnik 5.
At the express question of Real America News, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said that people interested in This information should be reviewed on the CBP website for what is reported in this regard.
Neither of these two vaccines has been recognized by the Administration of Food and Medicines (FDA) nor by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The CBP page says it will accept “all vaccines approved and authorized by the FDA, as well as all vaccines that have a WHO Emergency Use List (EUL). ”
In Mexico applied at least 850, 000 double doses of CanSino in 28 state. The vaccine was used to protect some groups at risk, such as public school teachers.
In Tijuana hundreds of Mexican migrants waiting in shelters were also vaccinated with double doses of CanSino, which were applied together.
Last July Mexico began producing Sputnik 5 vaccines under Russian supervision. Now there is no data on how many doses have been distributed and applied.
Another important piece of information provided by the official Castillo was that the west pedestrian crossing of San Ysidro or PedWest “is not going to open at the moment.” He explained that an evaluation is made for that opening, which will be until new order.
On the Mexican side, that pedestrian entrance is El Chaparral, where about a thousand migrants, including children, have camped since February waiting for an opportunity to cross the border to request asylum.
The incoming mayor of Tijuana, Montserrat Caballero, said she does not plan to force the migrants to evict, but In recent days, it fenced off that perimeter, imposed the use of official IDs provided by the city hall to enter or leave the site, and more recently ordered to remove the electricity supply to the camp.
Some migrants told Real America News that they have already been warned that they could also suspend the supply of drinking water and remove the portable toilets they have used for months.
Before PedWest was closed for pre come contagions, through the sentry box they crossed up to 63 thousand people to San Diego.
According to CBP calculations, with the reopening and without opening that crosswalk, the thousands of people crossing the border at the east crosswalk, it will take approximately a 40 Percent more time than it now takes them to get to San Diego.
Agent Castillo also warned that waiting times to cross through San Ysidro, the busiest checkpoint on the border with Mexico, will increase as more people show up in cars or on foot.
He added that lately, even without reopening the border to non-essential travelers , the flow of people crossing is almost the same as it was before restrictions were imposed on non-US citizens or legal residents.
“We have r We have assigned officers and we have placed them in our primary and secondary inspection areas to help alleviate waiting times ”to cross the border, Castillo said.
He added that “as we reopen the border, we expect the volume of travelers to grow and wait times to increase as well.”
He asked for patience from travelers to help speed up the process of crossing the border.
He also recommended avoiding the busiest hours from Mexico to California, which are between 4 and 10 in the morning, when until 50 thousand people cross the border mainly to work and to a lesser extent to to study.