In El Paso, EMS Calls to Border Are Rising

El Paso Times

The intensifying COVID-19 pandemic in the Borderland has prompted more ambulance calls to El Paso's international bridges. What's going on?

El Paso and Juárez are suffering a twin surge in coronavirus cases that have overwhelmed hospitals on both sides of the border and stretched resources thin. But crossings at U.S. land ports of entry are currently restricted to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

In March, the Department of Homeland Security limited nonessential travel at land ports of entry to slow the spread of COVID-19. In practice, Mexican nationals — including those who hold a tourist visa — are prohibited from crossing.

Crossing for "a medical purpose" is considered an "essential" reason, but Mexican nationals must show documentation of an appointment for a medical service, according to CBP.

"As is standard practice when there is a medical emergency at the port of entry, our personnel will summon EMS and facilitate a patient transfer while also checking the admissibility of the individual," CBP spokesman Roger Maier said in a statement. "The vast majority of ambulance transfers we have facilitated in recent days have been U.S. citizens and/or legal permanent residents."

CBP officers may apply exceptions to the order against nonessential travel "on a case by case situation," Maier said. But the agency is tasked with "preventing those with a communicable disease and/or those that may be now, or in the future, be a public charge from entering the U.S."

Tens of thousands of Borderland residents hold dual citizenship and call either El Paso or Juárez home — or both.

Bridge crossings by personal vehicles continue, albeit down by a third compared to the pre-pandemic rate, because of this duality and the close family and business connections across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Average monthly personal vehicle crossings at international bridges dropped to below 600,000 in August from roughly 850,000 during the same month a year ago, according to the Borderplex Business Barometer produced by the University of Texas at El Paso.

Historically, El Paso residents without health insurance or with subpar coverage have sought medical care in Juárez at clinics and hospitals where the cost of private care is a fraction of that in the U.S. Mexico has not barred U.S. citizens from crossing southbound for any reason, including to visit pharmacies or seek medical care.

Assistant Fire Chief Jorge Rodriguez, coordinator of the El Paso County Office of Emergency Management, addressed the issue of ambulance calls to the bridges during a news conference last week.

"The El Paso Fire Department ambulances do not go to Mexico to pick up patients," he said in an Oct. 30 news conference. "We work closely with CBP. When persons are transported by Mexican ambulance, they are then transferred to El Paso Fire Department ambulances on U.S. soil. We have a legal responsibility to provide services to anybody that's within city limits."

"More than 95% of all those that are transported are legal residents or American citizens," he said. "The remaining percent may be Mexican nationals but they made pre-arrangements with the hospital system."