(Reuters) – Movement of thousands of tons of customer freight by Union Pacific has been halted as a growing migrant crisis led U.S. border authorities to temporarily close train traffic to Mexico via Eagle Pass gateway in Texas, the railroad said.
The pass is one of the busiest gateways between the U.S. and Mexico and was shut as media outlets reported migrants from Mexico riding on rail wagons to cross into the small Texan city.
“(Our) other gateways cannot handle the extra traffic and we are notifying customers of an embargo at Eagle Pass, effective immediately,” Union Pacific said late on Wednesday.
The influx of migrants has prompted Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas to issue emergency declaration, citing “severe undocumented immigrant surge”.
The situation is expected to continue for seven days from Tuesday, according to the city’s official account on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Another railroad, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, which connects Mexico with U.S. and Canada, was not immediately available for comment on any impact to freight shipments.
On Wednesday, some cargo trains run by Mexico’s Ferromex restarted operations after they were halted following a spate of serious injuries and fatalities to migrants traveling on them.
(Reporting by Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
