Starting Thursday, people in the United States will be permitted to enter Mexico for nonessential purposes via land crossings in all but one of the country’s six northern border states.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said on Twitter that the ban on nonessential land travel from the United States to Mexico will remain in place until 11:59 p.m. on May 21 but only in border states that are high-risk orange or maximum-risk red on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map.

Of the six states, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas are currently low-risk green, Baja California and Sonora are medium-risk yellow and Chihuahua is orange.

As of 12:00 a.m. Thursday, when the current restrictions expire, people will be free to enter Mexico from the United States via crossings in all border states except Chihuahua — at least until an updated stoplight map takes effect next Monday and could result in changes to the border states’ colors on the map.

Meanwhile, the United States Department of Homeland Security has extended its restrictions on nonessential land travel from Mexico until 11:59 p.m. on May 21.

“The restriction suspends the entry into the United States via land border, ferry crossing, rail, or through coastal ports of entry from Canada and/or Mexico, as immigrants or nonimmigrants for any travel that is not deemed essential,” says a statement issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday.

The SRE said that Mexico and the United States are in talks to ease cross-border travel restrictions depending on coronavirus infection rates on both sides of the border.

Some Twitter users expressed anger that people in the United States will largely be able to cross into Mexico for nonessential purposes while Mexicans won’t be able to do the same in the opposite direction.

“Why can American citizens freely enter and leave our country without any restriction? Are they immune to Covid? Since the pandemic started, there have been no restrictions for them, only for us, the Mexican citizens,” tweeted one person, apparently referring to reports that U.S. travelers haven’t been stopped from entering Mexico for nonessential purposes.

The SRE also announced that the ban on nonessential travel into Mexico via the southern border would continue until May 21.

While the restrictions on nonessential travel across the northern border were introduced more than a year ago, the southern border ban only took effect a month ago.

Mexico News Daily