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 Christmas and the New Year’s holidays just days away, Union Pacific is in close communication with multiple government agencies and our customers, urging that the crossings closed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection be reopened. While the company understands this is a complex humanitarian crisis, most migrants are not crossing the border on trains.
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.
