SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The Microsoft global outage on Friday caused delays along the U.S.-Mexico border and even forced ports of entry in the San Diego-Tijuana region to shut down for several hours, affecting countless commuters.
People described being stranded for hours while trying to cross the border.
“I got in line at 3 in the morning,” said Alejandro Ornelas, who was still waiting in line four hours later when he spoke with Border Report.
According to the Smart Border Coalition, about 200,000 commuters cross the border every morning from Tijuana into San Diego in cars or on foot.
“It was bad, it was super bad,” Jessica Gaytan said.
She and four co-workers cross the border almost daily to work at a McDonald’s restaurant about 35 miles north of the border.
“The traffic, just getting to the border was super backed up and I was checking on my phone and it just kept saying the system was down … that they were going to let people cross by 11 or they were going to send everybody back.”
Gaytan said it took them two hours to cross the border once the system was back up when agents began processing people once again.
“I have friends at Otay who got in line at 6 in the morning and they still haven’t crossed,” she said. “Supposedly, on the group chats, people are saying there were people arguing and fighting over at San Ysidro.”
Others, like Vaqar Hussain, who went to Tijuana to run some errands, were stunned by the long waits and delays.
“It was a big line,” he said.
Hussain said the delays in crossing forced him to get a late start driving his cab along the border area in San Ysidro.
“There were so many people waiting and they were late, they were calling their employers saying ‘I cannot cross’ and behind me, there was a man standing and he was calling saying, ‘I’m sorry, the line is not moving,” a lot of people were late to work.”
A faulty software update caused the global technology outage, grounding flights and knocking banks offline and media outlets off the air.
The Microsoft outage also affected the Tijuana airport where travelers were reporting long delays.
The delays at both the airport and border crossings lasted about four hours.
In Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas, photos and videos shared on social media on Friday showed hundreds of people waiting in long lines in the pedestrian lanes at two border crossings.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is experiencing processing delays due to the global technology outage. While ensuring national and homeland security, we are working to mitigate impacts to our operations and are proactively working with our stakeholders to minimize the impact to international trade and travel. During this time, travelers at air and land ports of entry may experience longer than normal wait times. All CBP applications, including Automated Commercial Environment, CBP One, Simplified Arrival, and the Global Entry Mobile App, are operational. We will continue our work to restore our systems to full capacity and provide updates as they become available.“
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not specifically say how the technical issues affected its operations at ports of entry.
But through a statement to Border Report, a CBP spokesperson admitted they experienced delays, but worked to mitigate impacts to operations and “worked proactively to minimize impact to international trade and travel.”
CBP warned that “during this time, travelers at air and land ports of entry may experience longer than normal wait times,” but went on to say that all CBP applications, including Automated Commercial Environment, CBP One, Simplified Arrival, and the Global Entry Mobile App, remained operational.
