COVID-19: US extends land travel bans with Canada and Mexico

The Department of Homeland Security will extend the bans on nonessential land travel across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico, according to notices set to be published in the Federal Register on Monday, May 24.

Key Points:

• The restrictions will remain in place until 11:59 p.m. EDT on June 21.
• Only “essential travel” will be permitted through land ports of entry along the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders.
• The list of individuals permitted to engage in “essential travel” includes:
  • U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) returning to the U.S.
  • Individuals traveling to work in the U.S. (e.g., agricultural workers), engaging in lawful cross-border trade (e.g., truck drivers transporting goods), or traveling to attend school, receive medical treatment, for public health purposes, or a limited number of other reasons.
• The restrictions do not apply to air or sea travel, but do apply to passenger rail, passenger ferry travel and pleasure boat travel.

Additional Information: The bans on nonessential travel, introduced in March 2020 because of COVID-19, were initially in place for 30 days and have been extended numerous times since then.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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