The climate crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border reaches new heights

Could pollution from the crush of cars finally be the tipping point to fix the border crisis?

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Border crossing from Tijuana into San Ysidro, Calif. Photo: Richard Masoned/Flickr.

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.) 

TIJUANA, Mexico (Callaway Climate Insights) — A crisis is brewing at the U.S.-Mexico border, but this time it’s not caused by immigration policies, a flood of refugees, or crime by drug lords. It’s about the climate.

The increasingly long waits on the Mexican side of both the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa borders has spread to an average wait time of more than three hours this month. Thousands of U.S. and Mexican citizens sit in their cars on idle, spewing fumes while trying to inch up so as not to allow anyone else to cut the line in front of them. 

There is no rhyme or reason to the lines, motorists just seize an opportunity and change lanes randomly, often creating new lanes. They run out of their cars just to relieve themselves at one of the few bathrooms near the border, and dart back to their cars.

And during this month of July, temperatures and tempers are at an all-time high.