With the eviction of the migrant camp in Tijuana, the path to the El Chaparral pedestrian port, which in San Diego is called Peatonal Oeste, or PedWest, was cleared, but authorities on both sides of the border told Chula Vista Today that they still have no plans to reopen the facility.
“With respect to PedWest in San Ysidro, Customs and Border Protection will continue to assess staffing levels to determine when we can safely and sustainably resume normal travel,” a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Chula Vista Today.
The spokesperson said an announcement will be made when the hours of operation for the checkpoint are decided, and for now, the East Pedestrian crossing will remain as the only border crossing on foot.
Before reopening PedWest, CBP will assign more agents to PedEast to expedite inspections, he said.
The PedWest Pedestrian Crossing has been closed since March 21, 2020, when federal authorities closed it as part of restrictions on non-essential border crossings to prevent the spread of Covid.
Federal authorities ended border restrictions in November, but PedWest remained closed because the migrant camp next to Tijuana was at the entrance to that port, in El Chaparral.
The Secretary of the Government of Baja California, Catalino Zavala, said that the authorities are carrying out “managements for the reopening and regularization of the port of entry” but without providing details and without a date for it to open again.
"There is no fixed date at the moment," Zavala said, "but we will be informed in due course" about the reopening.
Statistics from the CBP show an average of about 22,000 people a day use PedWest to cross from Tijuana to San Ysidro.
In San Ysidro, the entrance to PedWest is right across from the entrance to the Puerta de las Américas shopping center, which is the largest on the border.
