Commercial operations at a gateway at the Port of Brownsville in South Texas were temporarily disrupted Tuesday as border agents were shifted to immigration duties.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection transferred some personnel to handle an influx of migrants arriving in the area, according to Armando Taboada, assistant director of field operations at the Laredo Field Office.

Taboada sent an email to the trade community around 7 a.m. Tuesday stating there “currently is a migrant situation occurring at the Port of Brownsville gateway 2301 … and the bridge is temporarily closed/services suspended.” 

The email said that “CBP personnel may be realigned, and some commercial cargo services may be reduced. Passenger traffic is being rerouted to Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge and the Veterans International Bridge.”

The Port of Brownsville is located about 277 miles south of San Antonio at the southernmost tip of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico and is a major trade facility between the U.S. and Mexico.

CBP warned that the migrants arriving in the region could reduce the number of open lanes at some of the port’s gateway, as well as increase commercial wait times for cargo trucks. 

About 9:50 a.m. Tuesday, Taboada said the port’s gateway 2301 was “back to normal operations … and CBP continues to monitor the migrant situation.”

In May, large groups of migrants arriving at El Paso’s Bridge of the Americas forced the port of entry to halt operations for several hours. 

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