Border securityUnmanned U.S.-Mexico border crossing to re-open in Big Bend National Park
A U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Texas’ Big Bend National Park that was once popular among U.S. tourists and Mexican shoppers will re-open in April 2012; the unmanned port of entry will be monitored by immigration officials hundreds of miles away. U.S. citizens will scan their passports and the identity of Mexican nationals will be biometrically confirmed
A U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Texas’ Big Bend National Park that was once popular among U.S. tourists and Mexican shoppers will re-open in April 2012.
Alan Bersin, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said construction on a National Park Service information center at the eastern border of the national park will begin this summer, the San Antonio Express-News reports. It will link the area to the town of Boquillas del Carmen across the Rio Grande River.
The unmanned port of entry will be monitored by immigration officials hundreds of miles away. U.S. citizens will scan their passports and the identity of Mexican nationals will be biometrically confirmed, NPR reports.
USA Today reports that the “informal” crossing, which closed for security reasons after 9/11, was once popular among Big Bend visitors, who would take a boat across a shallow portion of the river to Boquillas for beer, tacos and maybe a burro ride.
The town has lost much of its population in the nine years since the border closure, but Big Bend superintendent Bill Wellman told the Express-News he believes the crossing will attract visitors interested in tours of the Maderas del Carmen Protected Area on the Mexican side, along with hot springs and an abandoned mine.
A park concessionaire will operate a cross-border ferry. Bersin said the crossing will not threaten U.S. homeland security.
“People who act criminally will act criminally regardless (of whether) there’s a lawful crossing here,” Bersin said.
Speaking on NPR, Rick Lobello, education coordinator at the El Paso Zoo, said, “… I think it’s great news for the people of Mexico in that area, for Big Bend National Park, for ecotourism, and for the hopes of an international park some day.”
