Border Crisis: US Closes Bridge to Mexico After Migrants Attempt Mass Crossing

The U.S. government closed a bridge to Mexico Thursday after a group of roughly 1,000 migrants tried to make a mass entry, according to Border Report.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) closed the Gateway International Bridge that connects Matamoros, Mexico, with Brownsville, Texas, according to Border Report. Roughly 1,500 migrants are living in a large encampment a few blocks from the bridge on the Mexican side, Andrea Rudnik, a volunteer with Team Brownsville, told Border Report.

“Individuals were trying to cross. Barricades were set up. It was pretty much peaceful. Nobody got hurt,” Brownsville police investigator Martin Sandoval said, according to Border Report. “They were trying to cross in the lanes where the vehicles go through and it was just a mass of people.”

The group is believed to be awaiting the end of Title 42, a Trump-era public health order used to expel certain migrants to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic, while living in encampments in Matamoros, according to Border Report, citing Sandoval. The Trump-era order is set to end May 11 and Border Patrol agents are being told to prepare for a major surge on and after that date.

“They were saying they’ve been there for a while. Some were coming from Guatemala, Honduras. They were from very different places,” Sandoval said, according to Border Report.

Migrants awaiting the end of Title 42 in other areas of northern Mexico have conducted similar attempts to cross the international bridges in large groups recently. More than 1,000 migrants attempted entry at the Paso del Norte bridge to El Paso, Texas, in March.

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