This week, the city of Rocky Point also announced that border restrictions for Mexican citizens may be eased at the end of March.
Currently, Mexican citzens with visas have been restricted in travelling to the US as part of a Covid protocol that has been renewed monthly for the past year. This change be a big step towards normalizing cross border travel.
Rocky Point Mayor Ernesto ‘Kiko’ Munro stated this past week that ther was a “high probabilty” that restrictions would be lifted by the end of March.
Last month the Department of Homeland Security extended agreements with Mexico and Canada to keep land borders shut through March 21 — one year since travel restrictions were initially implemented as the pandemic first surged in the United States.
In a press release Thursday, Munro called the potential reopening “good news for Mexicans and Rocky Point residents,” many of whom have been unable to cross into the United States since last spring.
The travel restrictions are meant to prevent travel the U.S. State Department has defined as nonessential, like tourism, shopping and recreational activities. Travel for medical purposes, work or school is considered essential. But many U.S. citizens and permanent residents have still been able to cross the border freely, because of minimal southbound enforcement, and because their return trips to the United States from Mexico are considered essential, according to federal rules. Most of their neighbors in Mexico, however, have been unable to cross because of the restrictions.
