US announces extended travel restrictions with Mexico, Canada

The United States, Canada and Mexico will extend restrictions barring nonessential travel across their respective shared borders for another 30 days amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration announced Monday.

“As President Trump stated last week, border control, travel restrictions and other limitations remain critical to slowing the spread and allowing the phased opening of the country,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement.

The administration announced in March that it would close the northern and southern borders to most travel unrelated to commerce and trade in a bid to slow the spread of the virus. Officials said at the time that the restrictions would be reviewed after 30 days.

Monday’s extension was expected after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that the U.S.-Canada restrictions would remain in place.

President Trump said at the time the restrictions along the southern border were announced that it was intended to “reduce the incentive for a mass global migration that would badly deplete” health care resources in the U.S. Trump has spent the last three years railing against immigrants pouring in from Mexico and pushing for a wall along the border.

Mexico’s foreign relations secretariat confirmed the agreement on Monday, tweeting it had been reached “after reviewing the development of COVID-19 propagation in Mexico and [the United States].”

y han acordado extender por 30 días más las restricciones a todo el tránsito terrestre no esencial en su frontera común, tras revisar el desarrollo de la propagación del COVID-19 en México y en aquel país.

— Relaciones Exteriores (@SRE_mx) April 20, 2020

The U.S. has significantly more cases than either of its neighbors, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are more than 760,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., more than 36,000 in Canada and more than 8,000 in Mexico.

Rafael Bernal contributed.