Border authorities have reduced the entry from Tijuana to San Diego through the fast access lanes from 10 to just four, in an attempt to prevent more migrants, including increasingly Russians and Ukrainians, from wanting to enter the country to surrender to request asylum.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office reported that a growing flow of Ukrainian and Russian citizens enter the San Ysidro port of entry in used vehicles purchased in Tijuana to turn themselves over to federal officials they report seeking asylum.
CBP imposed a funnel-type operation, in which the vehicles that approach the port through that sector can now only come by four rows, suppressing another six. Those who approach must show, before reaching the border mark, an identification that authorizes them to access that access.
Vehicles only encounter the previously customary ten entry lanes after crossing the border strip.
The agents prevent the passage of vehicles in which people who fail to show identification are traveling.
Authorities are trying to reduce the flow of migrants, including Russians and Ukrainians, who have increased their crossing in search of asylum.
From the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 through January, 6,400 Russians and at least 1,000 Ukrainian citizens crossed the border using cars to turn themselves in for asylum.
CBP does not yet have statistics after that. Still, on condition of anonymity, an officer told Chula Vista Today that both Russians and Ukrainians have increased their attempt to cross from Tijuana into California via the San Ysidro since Russia began the invasion of Ukraine.
Authorities say to buy cheap cars and drive through the port of entry is a procedure Eastern Europeans use to enter for asylum.
Russians and Ukrainians fly to Mexico City or Mexican tourist hotspots, then travel to Tijuana where they buy cheap used cars, some with old California license plates, and cross the strip that demarcates the border in those vehicles.
Unlike tens of thousands of migrants of other nationalities seeking asylum, who are expelled to Mexican territory under Title 42 sanitary measure, Russians and Ukrainians are allowed to continue. They carry out their asylum processes alongside their relatives or close friends in the United States.
