Letter to Eduardo Medina Mora, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States - Restore Crossing Hours for Export Vehicles

Letter

The Honorable Eduardo Medina Mora
Ambassador of Mexico to the United States
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Ambassador Mora:

The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and the New Mexico Border Authority (NMBA) have informed us of a recent decision by the Mexican Federal Customs Agency to drastically reduce crossing hours for export vehicles at the Santa Teresa International Port of Entry. We respectfully request that you reach out to the Mexican Federal Customs Agency to begin working with their U.S. counterparts to restore the crossing hours back to twelve hours per day.

When the reduction of hours first took place, from twelve hours a day to three hours, it created a dangerous backlog of vehicles impacting New Mexico's highways and the safety of individuals using them. Additionally, vehicles waiting to be exported into Mexico began forming long lines on the shoulder of our state highways, and created significant safety concerns for privately owned vehicles and commercial trucks using the highway. While the NMDOT has found temporary solutions by rerouting this traffic to private roads, this is only a temporary fix. In addition, this congestion is negatively impacting the movement of commercial traffic in the Santa Teresa industrial base from New Mexico to Mexico, hurting both U.S. and Mexican businesses.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, we appreciate your consideration of this request. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can further assist in this matter.

Sincerely,

Tom Udall
United States Senator

Martin Heinrich
United States Senator

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