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Microsoft outage causes hours of delays at border crossings

SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Microsoft’s global outage on Friday caused delays along the U.S.-Mexico border, even forcing border crossings in the San Diego-Tijuana region to remain closed for hours, affecting countless commuters.

People reported being stuck for hours when trying to cross the border.


“I was in line at 3 a.m.,” said Alejandro Ornelas, who was still in line four hours later when he spoke to Border Report.

According to the Smart Border Coalition, about 200,000 commuters cross the border from Tijuana to San Diego every morning, either by car or on foot.

“It was bad, it was super bad,” said Jessica Gaytan.

Jessica Gaytan on the phone with friends waiting to cross the border at the San Ysidro port. (Salvador Rivera/Border Report)

Together with four colleagues, she crosses the border almost every day to work in a McDonald’s restaurant, about 56 kilometers north of the border.

“The traffic, just to get to the border, was really jammed. I looked at my phone and it kept saying the system was down… that they were going to let people through at 11:00 or they were going to send everyone back.”

According to Gaytan, it took two hours to cross the border once the system was working again and officers started registering people.

“I have friends in Otay who were in line at 6 a.m. and still haven’t crossed,” she said. “People would say in the group chats that there were people arguing and fighting over San Ysidro.”

Others, like Vaqar Hussain, who went to Tijuana to run some errands, were shocked by the long waits and delays.

“It was a long line,” he said.

Hussain said delays at the border crossing kept him from getting to the border area near San Ysidro in his taxi until late.

“There were so many people waiting and they were late. They called their employers and said, ‘I can’t cross.’ There was a man behind me who shouted, ‘I’m sorry, the line isn’t moving.’ A lot of people were late for work.”

A faulty software update caused a global technology outage, grounding flights, knocking banks offline and sending media off the air.

The Microsoft outage also affected Tijuana airport, where travelers reported long delays.

Long lines at Tijuana airport caused by Microsoft glitch. (Jorge Nieto/Special for Border Report.)

Delays at the airport and border crossings lasted approximately four hours.

In Juarez, Mexico, on the border with El Paso, Texas, photos and videos were shared on social media on Friday showing hundreds of people waiting in long lines in 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 the impact to our operations and are proactively working with our stakeholders to minimize the impact to international trade and travel. During this time, travelers may experience longer than normal wait times at air and land ports of entry. All CBP applications, including Automated Commercial Environment, CBP One, Simplified Arrival, and the Global Entry Mobile App, are operational. We will continue to work to restore our systems to full capacity and provide updates as they become available.

US Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not specifically stated how the technical problems will impact operations at the border crossings.

But in a statement to Border Report, a CBP spokesperson acknowledged there were delays but that efforts were being made to mitigate the impact on operations and were “proactively working to minimize the impact on international trade and travel.”

CBP warned that “during this time, travelers may experience longer than normal wait times at airports and land gates of entry,” but said all CBP applications, including Automated Commercial Environment, CBP One, Simplified Arrival and the Global Entry Mobile App, remained operational.