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San Ysidro Port Manager Sidney Aki (right) shows the lineup of cars entering the United States from Mexico during a guided tour of the port on October 26, 2018 in San Diego, California.(Photo: Alan Gomez, USA Today)
US Customs and Border Protection has temporarily suspended vehicle traffic north of the San Ysidro, California border crossing, the largest land port along the US-Mexico border, said Monday a spokesman for CBP.
The decision was made to place additional port hardening materials in the plant, the official said in a statement. As a result, CBP will resume processing of northbound vehicle traffic on certain ports of entry.
Lanes reserved for vehicles heading south are not affected, said the official.
The move comes as members of a caravan of migrants arrive in towns along the US-Mexico border. The Trump administration has called the caravan a potential invasion – and mobilized staff and equipment at the border in response – people are fleeing their home country in Central America to flee violence, corruption and poverty.
Most members of the caravan are trying to enter the San Ysidro facility, where about 100,000 people, including 40,000 vehicles, are legally entering the San Diego-Tijuana border.
The port includes 26 treatment cabs for vehicles arriving in the United States, all of which were closed Monday morning. It also has 36 lanes to treat pedestrians; half of these lanes were closed on Monday.
The installation is already equipped with red buttons on the entire installation that can, if pressed down, trigger a chain reaction that closes the port to northbound traffic.
In August, officials finalized a multi-year $ 750 million upgrade to increase the number of lanes available for freight trucks, buses, personal vehicles and pedestrians.
Despite these improvements, the facility can only treat a hundred asylum seekers every day, accommodating them in a series of detention cells built in the basement of the facility, originally designed to accommodate criminals and those in need of medical care.
More than 1,000 migrants from Central America gathered in shelters in the city of Mexicali, on the border between California and Mexico, after the Mexican police prevented their buses from traveling to Tijuana, where 400 other members of the caravan converged.
More: "Do not send people away, but ask them to wait": the border patrol prepares for the arrival of the migrant caravan
Contributors: Rebecca Plevin, Palm Springs Desert Sun
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