Like these illegal human swarms aren’t causing enough misery, now they’re shutting down international commerce because of them, too?

Trade is slowly coming to a standstill & our law enforcement officers are exhausted ahead of a demoralizing holiday season that will keep them working overtime. If there was ever a time to sound the alarm, this would be it.

— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) December 18, 2023

The Border Patrol issued a statement Sunday evening that, as of 8 a.m. Monday morning they were suspending all rail traffic through the Eagle Pass and El Paso railway crossing bridges.

Statement from CBP on Suspension of Rail Operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas

“CBP is continuing to surge all available resources to safely process migrants in response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals. After observing a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains, CBP is taking additional actions to surge personnel and address this concerning development, including in partnership with Mexican authorities.

“Beginning December 18, 2023 at 8:00 AM local time, CBP’s Office of Field Operations will temporarily suspend operations at the international railway crossing bridges in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody. CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation…

Closing down the bridge at Eagle Pass takes one of the most heavily used and important trade routes in the entire country out of the picture. As Eagle Pass likes to brag, out of the over 450 airports, seaports and other border crossings in the US? It was 34th.

Eagle Pass is ranked number 10 for international imports and exports by value when up against just the border crossings. That’s some huge numbers which have come to a screeching halt.

…On a year-to-date basis, trade at Eagle Pass was valued at $31.34 billion, an increase of 10.16 percent through October.

…As the chart at top in the middle shows, through October, 30.79 percent of that trade at Eagle Pass was an export and 69.21 percent was an import. The national average is 39.51 percent for exports and 60.49 percent for imports for the same 10 months of the year. Eagle Pass ranked No. 34 by value among all of the nation’s 450-plus airports, seaports and border crossings. Ranking it just against other border crossings, it ranked No. 10 by value and No. 210 by tonnage.

This is the second time the CBP has closed the bridge. They had to shut it down for three days back in September, and that was a heavy blow at the time to commerce. Something on the order of $1.3B in goods was left on the siderails while border agents surged to chase off human smugglers and clear illegals out of the trains themselves.

It was a frickin’ clown show with real consequences.

…It is not the first time the trains have been held up to stop migrant crossings, and allow CBP staff to focus on another area.

In September, 60 northbound cargo trains run by Mexico’s Ferromex were stopped south of Ciudad Juarez, after about half a dozen migrants were killed or injured.

In response, Texan authorities then shut the Eagle Pass crossing – the second busiest in the U.S. – for three days.

Union Pacific, which manages the route, said 24 trains with 2,400 cars total were held north and south of the border due to the stoppage.

Under the Eagle Pass bridge this morning, it does kind of look as if the crowds are packed in there.

This is absolute madness. Deny them entry at all costs. Biden’s intentional open borders policy makes our country more dangerous and deadly day by day

— @Matthew Betley (@MatthewBetley) December 18, 2023

In the meantime, Union Pacific is already crying “UNCLE!” and it’s not even the first afternoon yet. They want to be able to get their trains loaded with whatever to where they need to be, and stat, because there are already lots of contracted goods waiting to fill those cars for a return trip once they’ve been unloaded or decoupled and added onto another freight train. It ties schedules up up over the country, costing precious money and time.

Union Pacific urges the Eagle Pass and El Paso border crossings be reopened immediately. These locations represent 45% of cross-border Union Pacific business and include goods critical to the U.S. economy.There isn’t enough capacity at our other four gateways to reroute them.With… pic.twitter.com/BXJBogrRCP

— Union Pacific (@UnionPacific) December 18, 2023

…Union Pacific uses our own employees, police force, and technology including an x-ray system that uses gamma-ray imaging, to look for people and contraband. Finding contraband before it makes its way into the U.S. is crucial to the safety and security of our railroad, our employees and the communities we serve. Every day that the border is closed, Union Pacific is forced to embargo customers’ goods on more than 60 trains, or nearly 4,500 rail cars, with an equivalent of goods being held in Mexico. Union Pacific is doing everything possible to stage trains and work with customers to prevent congestion at the border. The longer this closure is in effect, the more difficult it will be for cross-border trade to resume.

At chokepoint after chokepoint, legitimate traffic is being denied exit or entry in lieu of stopping illegals from entering. But also in the name of CBP having to use all their available resources to “process” the hordes ILLEGALLY coming IN.

…The suspension of international railway traffic is among several changes CBP has made in recent weeks in efforts to “respond, process and enforce consequences” of unauthorized crossings along the border with Mexico, the agency said.

In Eagle Pass, Texas, vehicle traffic remains suspended at Eagle Pass International Bridge 1. In San Diego, San Ysidro’s Pedestrian West operations remain suspended. In Lukeville, Arizona, the Lukeville Port of Entry remains closed, CBP said.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Surge to stop them and send them BACK, not to “process” them “safely” to stay!

But, no. Everybody waves their hands and expresses “outrage” while these border jumpers keep lining and no one can plug a damn hole in a wall.

I heard a report this morning that the 1,000 person facility was holding 5,000.
This isn’t sustainable and DC is well aware of that. Something is going to break and things will get truly ugly.

— Southern Dom Sense (@SouthrnDomSense) December 18, 2023

You know, it’s gotten so ludicrous with all the border crossing closures – while the border itself remains wide open – that US passport holders in Mexico are actually talking about slipping through holes in border fences to see relatives for the holidays. It’s that much quicker that waiting for Nogales or Lukeville, for instance, to reopen.

…The Lukeville decision has forced many who attempt to traverse the border legitimately to consider an illegal crossing instead of an eight-hour delay.

‘There’s so many people that are so upset seeing all these 10,000 illegals coming in a day, and they’re coming through a wall that the cartel cut a hole in,’ said Robin Miller, who lives nearby.

‘And they’re just coming in, coming in.

‘Yet us people with passports [who] are legal to go to the states, we can’t go.’

Arizona resident Cynthia Lowe usually takes the legal route to visit her family and now she may just break the law, as she sees so many others doing to get to them in time for Christmas.

‘I’m seriously contemplating walking through the hole in the wall and having my kids pick me up on the other side,’ she said.

This is why they closed Lukeville, et al, and the rail bridges down. Also why it seems to make more sense as a citizen to walk through the holes like everyone else.

NEW: CBP sources confirm December is on track to blow November encounter numbers out of the water:

167k for the first 17 days of December.
130k for the first 17 days of November.

The Tucson sector is leading the charge and is seeing the most people showing up there to self… pic.twitter.com/PMQSA6CWxo

— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) December 18, 2023

…The Tucson sector is leading the charge and is seeing the most people showing up there to self surrender to Border Patrol agents—The majority crossing through holes cut in the border wall by human smugglers in the Lukeville area.

This comes as roughly 10k or more people were apprehended every day last week. Every day surpassed 10k with the exception of 9900+ yesterday. Friday surpassed 11k.

Agents say they are overwhelmed and this situation isn’t sustainable—Multiple sectors are beyond capacity—Agents & OFO officers are being pulled from check points and other areas to assist with transport/process—Leaving many areas along the southern border vulnerable and open for the cartels to push whatever and whoever through the unmanned holes.

It’s not sustainable. Of course, it’s not.

The Biden open border is going to take everything else down with it.