About 18 weeks ago, President Trump threatened to close the border between the United States and Mexico, which would significantly impact international trade between the two countries.  In response and ever since the announcement, leadership from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has hosted a public call every week.  The call prior to this call was on June 21, 2019 explaining the situation on the U.S. Southern border with Mexico.  Our friends at NASCO, the North American Strategy for Competitiveness, an organization that promotes and improves North American trade, attended the last conference call on July 12, 2019 and shared notes.  Please see below:

USA Mexico Border

Good Day NASCO members,

Please see below bullets from yesterday’s USCBP POE update call;

  • Apprehensions numbers this week have dropped
  • The numbers are down in June.  Roughly 20% to 104,344 apprehensions compared to 144,000 (estimate) in May
  • This is attributed to increased engagement by Mexican authorities combined with summer heat which typically results in lower volumes
  • Just under 10,000 in custody today, a significant improvement
  • Congress passed supplemental funding providing $45 million reimbursement to DHS
  • Overtime is now being implemented
  • 731 US CBP officers still redeployed and will be maintained for the time being
  • Outlook is good to decrease wait times at cargo processing and airports
  • Hidalgo, Pharr and El Paso have seen some recent shut downs in an effort to disperse large groups, however impact of shut down is minimal
  • US CBP is feeling hopeful and expressed gratitude to industry for support
  • The once held weekly USCBP POE Update calls will now move to biweekly with the next call July 25, 2019