Texans driving to Mexico for cheaper gas

Gas prices are soaring so high in the US that drivers in El Paso, Texas, are taking the desperate step of crossing the border to fill up in Mexico, where prices are more than a dollar cheaper, according to reports.

“We’re close to El Paso and, yes, we’ve seen more traffic, more people with Texas license plates,” Jonathan Rivas, a manager at a Juárez, Mexico, gas station, told the El Paso Times.

Drivers in El Paso are paying an average of $4.19 a gallon north of the border, according to AAA. But just across the border in Juarez, Mexico, the price is just $3 a gallon, reports KTSM.

“We already came out here and put gas in Juarez because, in El Paso, it is overly expensive,” El Paso resident Rene Gaucin told the Border Report.

The drive isn’t easy. Texans heading back from Mexico have to sit in their idling cars while waiting in long security lines to re-enter the United States. Wait times at the international ports of entry in El Paso average about an hour during the week and up to three hours on the weekend.

El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, are sister cities, divided by the Rio Grande. For most people living in El Paso, driving into Mexico takes 15 minutes or less.

“I’m starting to think I should go to Juarez and fill it up because it’s crazy (here),” El Paso resident Anai Santarriaga told KTSM.

Normally, gas on the US side of the border is cheaper than on the Mexican side, according to the El Paso Times. That’s because most of the gas stations and prices in Mexico are controlled by the federal government under the brand PEMEX.

Prices at the pump in the US have soared in the last two weeks due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the US ban on Russian energy imports.

Today, the national average for one gallon of gas is $4.33, says AAA. On Feb. 22, before the war in Ukraine started, it was $3.53.