US suspends operations at rail border crossings to tackle illegal immigration surge

U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday temporarily suspended operations at two railway crossings between the United States and Mexico to redirect personnel to assist U.S. Border Patrol with processing illegal immigrants. 

"After observing a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains, CBP is taking additional actions to surge personnel and address this concerning development, including in partnership with Mexican authorities," the agency said Sunday when announcing the temporary closures of the crossing bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas.

The temporary closures come after the agency indefinitely shut down the Lukeville, Arizona, crossing earlier this month to reassign border officers to address the influx of illegal immigrants. 

The agency did not state when the railway crossings would reopen, but said it is "continuing to surge all available resources to safely process migrants in response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border." 

CBP recorded more than 309,000 illegal immigrant encounters in October, the most recent month for which data is available, which is the highest number of encounters on record. That came after agents recorded a record of more than 3.2 million encounters last fiscal year, which ran from October 2022 through September 2023.

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