Grandparents await hugs as US borders open again

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. fully reopened its borders with Mexico and Canada on Monday and lifted restrictions on travel that covered most of Europe, setting the stage for emotional reunions nearly two years in the making and providing a boost for the travel industry decimated by the pandemic.

The restrictions, among the most severe in U.S. history, kept families apart, including spouses who have not been able to hug in months, grandparents whose grandchildren doubled in age since they last saw them, and uncles and aunts who have not met nieces and nephews who are now toddlers.

Lines moved quickly Monday morning at San Diego’s border with Mexico, the busiest crossing in the United States, despite the added checks for vaccinations required to enter the country.

Octavio Alvarez, 43, zipped through in less than 15 minutes, coming to the United States for the first time since February 2020. Alvarez and his 14-year-old daughter, Sofia, planned to visit his motherin-law in California for the first time in two years.

“It’s a big feeling,” said Alvarez, whose family visited California twice a month before the pandemic.

The emotional cost of the border restrictions were “very high,” he added.

The new rules also lift restrictions on air travel from some countries dating back the early days of the pandemic — as long as travelers have proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test.

American citizens and permanent residents were always allowed to enter the U.S., but the travel bans grounded tourists, thwarted business travelers and often separated families.

Gaye Camara, who lives in France, was already imagining her reunion Monday with her husband in New York. They last saw each other in January 2020, not knowing it would be 21 months before they could hold each other again.

“I’m going to jump into his arms, kiss him, touch him,” said Camara, 40, as she wheeled her luggage through Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, where the humming crowds resembled those before the pandemic, except for the face masks.

On the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, where traveling back and forth was a way of life before the pandemic, the reopening brought relief.

Malls, restaurants and shops in U.S. border towns have been devastated by the lack of visitors from Mexico.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, flanked by U.S. and Mexican officials at a celebratory news conference at the San Ysidro crossing, said the economic losses were hefty and the cutting of family ties “immeasurable.”

Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero called it a “reunion between neighbor countries.”

Retail sales in San Ysidro on California’s border with Mexico fell about 75% from PRE-COVID levels, forcing nearly 300 businesses to close.

Along Canada’s boundary, crossborder hockey rivalries were upended. Churches that had members on both sides of the border were suddenly cut off from each other.

But on Monday, border traffic quickly returned.

Travelers at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York, one of the northern border’s busiest crossings, found a 2½-hour wait at 2 a.m., officials said, though within a few hours traffic was flowing more freely. The bridge typically handles about 2 million passenger vehicles from Fort Erie, Ontario, yearly, many of them bound for the region’s shopping malls, ski slopes and sporting events. Volume dropped by more than 90% during the pandemic.