San Luis mayor calls for border opening
Sanchez seeks end to restrictions on non-essential visits from Mexico
SAN LUIS, Ariz. – The use of face masks is more effective than continuing border closures in preventing the spread of COVID-19 between this city and Mexico, Mayor Gerardo Sanchez says.
What’s more, he says, masks won’t hurt businesses in his city that depend on trade with shoppers from Mexico.
Sanchez is calling on the federal government to end restrictions of Mexicans from crossing the border at U.S. ports of entry for all but essential reasons.
“The closure of the border has done a lot of damage to our economy,” Sanchez said in an interview. “Businesses have closed because they no longer have those shoppers. It’s time for them to open the border, before the damage gets worse.”
Since March, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has closed the border for discretionary visits from Mexico as part of measures aimed at curbing the pandemic. People from Mexico can continue to cross the border to work, for commerce and for other reasons deemed as essential.
Sanchez, who also recently spoke on the topic at a recent virtual forum hosted by 4FrontED, said the closures are not the reason for the decline in coronavirus cases in his city.
“If the number of COVID-19 cases have dropped up to 75%, it wasn’t because of the border closure; it was because the state allowed us to make facemask use obligatory.”
Citing what he said are U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, Sanchez said the closures prevented 1.2 million people from crossing at the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis from January through July of this year.
He said the number of vehicle and pedestrian crossings have dropped 23.8% and 24%, respectively, in that period.
“In my opinion, having the
border closed to tourism is not justified, and I believe that althought a second wave of infections could come, it can be kept open in a safe way with the measures that have been implemented.”
He said the city will have a clearer picture after December about the impact of the pandemic on the local economy, given that consumer spending in the fourth quarter could drop absent passage of a new stimulus package in Congress.
“I fear that’s when the economy could fall more, if the border is not open to visitors,” Sanchez said. “It’s now time for them to open it.”
The governments of the United States and Mexico look at various factors relating to the pandemic to decide if the border should remain open only to commercial traffic and essential crossings. Mexico is recommending Americans not visit except for essential reasons, although it is not barring crossings.