EL PASO, Texas – Fifteen months after the coronavirus pandemic closed the US-Mexico border to all but “essential” travel, Andrea, a middle-class mother of two boys, had had enough.
Their situation at home was untenable: the children needed someone to look after them because Andrea had to return to an office where she is a physiotherapist. Her crammed house was in disarray. She needed her nanny, who lives in Mexico and, like countless thousands of other people, couldn’t enter the US to work due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Then, at the end of August, Andrea decided to take advantage of a loophole in the pandemic restrictions: she paid out of her own pocket to take her nanny from Ciudad Juarez to her house across the Rio Grande in El Paso by making the detour.
Andreas Nanny, on a tourist visa, was driven four hours to Chihuahua City, where she boarded a flight to Dallas, then changed the plane for a 90-minute flight to El Paso, avoiding the border entirely.
Everything to work in El Paso just a dozen miles from their home in Juarez.
An increasing number of border residents are making unusual efforts to circumvent restrictions to conduct their business during the pandemic. Many non-essential travelers find flying to the US to be the best option, albeit an expensive choice: Andrea paid about $ 350 for a one-way ticket to see her nanny after Bring home.
“What does essential mean when these people take care of our old people, our children, clean our houses and prune our gardens? We went from one month to six months, to more than a year, and at the end of summer we felt that we really had to act proactively and boldly, “said Andrea, who spoke on the condition that her last name is not disclosed, because it is hiring someone to work without proper documentation.
“It’s very important to my family,” she said. “Besides, she’s more than just a nanny or a housekeeper. She is family. It’s just a fact of life on the border. “
Land border crossings have been closed to most Mexicans since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in travel restrictions along the 2,000-mile border with the United States. And along with the trade, Americans are allowed to go back and forth non-stop with “substantial” reasons for things like school and medicine. However, the COVID-19 measure largely prevents all Mexican nationals with border crossing cards from seeing family and friends, attending social gatherings, going to doctor’s appointments, or shopping.
Generations of Mexicans have crossed the border every day in the last century to do informal jobs as maids or care for children and the elderly, to do construction work and to work in the garden. Flying to the US is now the best option to bypass the partially closed border.
“One of the beauties of being a frontier resident is that you can live in multiple cultures,” said Eva Moya, assistant professor of social work at the University of Texas at El Paso. “Hence, you learn wonderful skills and become more resourceful with greater adaptability. You are twice as likely to become more effective in life because you have to. It’s called survival. “
On Monday, Yolanda Zuniga, 66, boarded a flight from Monterrey, in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, to Dallas and paid nearly $ 400 round-trip travel to see her critically ill sister. That was a ride she used to take on the freeway for less than $ 100.
“I saw her several times a year,” she says. “Now I can hardly afford a trip. It’s so expensive, but we’re a family so not seeing them is not an option. “
Zuniga relied on the help of her trusted travel agent in Monclova, Coahuila state, Mexico. Jose Manuel Pacheco and his partner once ran a thriving ground transportation company, MoncloTexas Tours, which provided trips to the San Antonio border and as far as Dallas for people from northern Mexico like Zuniga. A trip to Dallas is especially popular, Pacheco said, when the Dallas Cowboys are on a rare winning streak.
Then the pandemic came and his business came to a standstill. Pacheco feared bankruptcy in a panic. Then he started packing air travel for his customers, packages that include mandatory COVID-19 tests, followed by a trip to the airport. His business is booming.
Part of this business is helping Americans in Texas get their nannies’ Mexican passports, which are required for U.S. tourist visas.
“I went from fear of losing my business to adding more staff and vehicles to keep up with demand,” he said. “In my case, the pandemic was good for business.”
The demand for flights to the USA is growing. American Airlines announced new flights between Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport and Chihuahua City starting October 7th.
Traffic on this route is slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels. In August 2019 there were 93 flights from Chihuahua to Dallas. There were 36 last year at the height of the pandemic. This year the number has risen to over 60, according to data from Diio Cirium, a database program for flight frequencies.
To meet increased demand, American Airlines will fly larger seated aircraft on DFW routes to a number of Mexican destinations near the Texas border, including flights to Monterrey and Chihuahua. The new aircraft will increase seating capacity to Monterrey by 27%.
From walking to flying
Some residents are not that enthusiastic about flying. Miranda, 66, has been working for a family in El Paso for five years, taking care of her only child, two dogs, and cleaning the house. Miranda, who is from Chihuahua City, spoke on condition that her name not be used for fear of losing her tourist visa, which would prohibit cardholders from working.
“I used to take the bus from the central bus station in Chihuahua City and get off in downtown Juarez to cross the bridge (El Paso del Norte) on foot. And then my boss always picked me up, ”said Miranda.
Miranda did this routine every five months, crossed on her tourist visa, worked and lived with the American family, and then returned home before her visa expired. She would then return on a tourist visa.
She was in Chihuahua for her vacation in March 2020 when the pandemic hit and border restrictions began. She thought it would only be a couple of weeks.
Months passed and her employer finally suggested air travel. Reluctantly, Miranda agreed.
“I was scared. I kept thinking about it. I had never taken a plane, my English is not very good and the thought of going to Dallas scared me,” Miranda said.
After tormenting herself over her decision for two weeks, she agreed. Miranda’s boss paid for everything.
Everything went smoothly. Miranda says she followed her boss’s instructions and that the Spanish-language signs at the airport helped. She said she was surprised at how well the immigration officers at the airport treated her; far from the often rude agents she said she met at the border crossings.
“I thought, ‘Wow, they’re a lot nicer than the ones on the bridge.’ They just asked me about my COVID-19 negative test and how long I stayed. I told them the truth for five months and that was it, ”said Miranda.
Nowadays, Chihuahua City has become such a hub for travelers that the city has also seen a boom in hotel capacity and total tourism revenue. Some spend more than $ 600 per visit, said Sofia Reyes, international accounts coordinator for the Ah Chihuahua Tourism program.
“We were very concerned about the border closure because it affects us directly, but when people learned about the option to travel by air, they did. The family, business and cultural ties between Juarez and El Paso are too strong that people had to take a plane, ”Reyes said.
Reyes said Chihuahua City has also seen an increase in visitors from the United States, which is energizing the tourism industry.
“We are seeing record numbers of hotel occupancy. Because of the direct flights, more people are coming to Chihuahua instead of flying to Juarez, ”added Reyes.
No end in sight
How long the border restrictions between the US and Mexico will remain in place is unclear. The Canadian government lifted the restrictions in August, but the restrictions along the US-Mexico border are renewed every month and are now in effect at least until October 21.
US authorities have repeatedly said that the border will reopen once at least 70% of the population in Mexican border towns are vaccinated. Last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico was ready to open the border and said 90% of border residents aged 18 and over have been vaccinated. The number is difficult to verify because only the federal government has access to these numbers, reported Al Día.
The US has sent vaccines to border states to speed up the process. But then the Delta variant struck.
Texas business leaders worry about another Christmas season without Mexicans. Most cannot get on a plane to go shopping.
“It’s going to be another blue Christmas without our most loyal customers, the Mexicans,” said Tanny Berg, founder of the El Paso Central Business Association. “There are only a limited number of adjustments you can make before you break.”
He found that the trend of employers letting their maids and nannies fly underscores the disparities along the border. Not all Mexican workers have tourist visas, and neither do wealthy employers who can afford a plane ticket.
Even Pacheco, whose business is booming, longs for the days when residents with a border pass could easily zigzag across the border. Although happy with his redesigned business, he says his family and friends cannot afford air travel. His family is scattered across Texas, including Dallas.
“In the end, the breakup is too much and in the end, families like mine pay the price,” he said. “I should be so happy with the business growing, but I miss seeing my family in Texas.”
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(Dallas Morning News associate Kyle Arnold contributed to this report.)
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