The United States says it will lift restrictions on fully vaccinated foreign citizens crossing its land borders with Canada and Mexico, putting an end to unprecedented limitations on non-essential travelers put in place to combat the Covid-19 outbreak since March 2020.
In a statement, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that beginning next month, “travelers from Mexico and Canada who are fully vaccinated for Covid-19 will be allowed to enter the US for non-essential purposes, such as visiting friends and family or for tourism, via land and ferry border crossings.”
According to US officials on a conference call with reporters earlier today, Wednesday, the new restrictions are similar but not identical to anticipated measures for international flight travelers unveiled last month.
Senators from border states applauded the decision to relax the exceptional restrictions that have hurt local economies and hindered visits to friends and family for the past 19 months.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, members of our shared cross-border community have felt the pain and economic hardship of the land border closures. That pain is about to end,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Unvaccinated visitors will still be barred from entering the US from Canada or Mexico at land borders.
Officials from President Joe Biden’s administration emphasized that the White House would not withdraw the “Title 42” order enacted by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which effectively blocked hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking refuge from Mexico from requesting asylum.
The exact date in early November when the limitations on both land and air travel would be eased will be announced “very shortly,” according to one of the officials.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the administration is developing “uniform, stringent processes for all foreign people traveling to the United States – whether by air, land, or ferry.”
