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Cars were lined up for miles to get into the US from Mexico on Sunday night ahead of the Biden administration lifting travel restrictions on foreign visitors Monday. 

Travel across land borders from Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to workers whose jobs are deemed essential for the past 20 months due to the pandemic.

The easing of the travel ban will allow the resumption of non-essential travel. 

US officials urged tourists to have their travel and vaccine documents readily available for border authorities to inspect in anticipation of longer-than-usual wait times at ports of entry.

Unvaccinated children will be allowed to enter the United States if they are traveling with a fully vaccinated adult, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune report. 

Customs and Border Protection also urged people traveling for non-essential reasons to avoid crossing at peak times.

Long lines at the United States-Mexico border as travel for vaccinated, non-essential workers returns

The Biden administration warned of long lines and told travelers to have their paperwork ready at the border

Travel across land borders from Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to workers whose jobs are deemed essential for the past 20 months due to the pandemic

Customs and Border Protection also urged people traveling for non-essential reasons to avoid crossing at peak times

President Joe Biden has been dealing with a continuing crisis at the southern border

The long lines to get into the US from Mexico come amid a continuing crisis at the border, as the number of migrants arrested at the southern border in the 2021 fiscal year is the highest since 1986, new Customs and Border Protection data shows.

The data, which is still unpublished but was obtained by The Washington Post, shows that border authorities detained more than 1.7 million migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2020 through September 2021.

The data is expected to be released publicly late this week.

Illegal crossings began skyrocketing in the months after President Joe Biden was inaugurated – and while the administration initially tried to blame Trump's policies for the increase, migrants have repeatedly said they made the trek to the U.S. with the belief the new administration would allow them to stay.

'They weren't wrong,' North Carolina Representative Dan Bishop tweeted of migrants' assumptions about being able to stay in the U.S. illegally under Biden's leadership. 

Another pull, migrants said, was the labor shortages in the U.S. exhibiting to them a need for workers.

In another dismissal of the growing crisis, Biden described the rise in spring 2021 as consistent with seasonal norms. That, however, did not remain true as the highest-levels of illegal crossings came during the hottest months of the year, July and August.

More than 200,000 migrants were taken into CBP custody each month.

Biden's team has continued to dismiss the crisis at the southern border, refusing to call it just that – a crisis – even as humanitarian issues emerged with overflowing holding and processing centers that reportedly served undercooked or spoiled food to unaccompanied minor migrants, as well as limited outdoor time and shower use.

In fiscal year 2021, more than 1.7 million migrants were taken into U.S. custody, new numbers being released later this week reveal. Here a group of migrants are process by immigration officials after crossing illegally from Mexico into Roma, Texas on September 30

The total encounters in FY 2021 are the highest since 1986 and far surpass any migration numbers in the surge during Donald Trump's presidency

Haitian migrants wait on Tuesday to board a boat that will take them  to Colombia as they trek from South America to the U.S.  – in a sign the migration crisis will not cease any time soon

The US is bracing for a flood of vaccinated international visitors from all countries after COVID-19  travel restrictions are lifted on Monday - but tourists should expect to be turned away if the were inoculated with a shot of the Russia or China versions.

Foreign travelers are being warned of long lines and crammed conditions as US airports expect a swell of tourists who haven't been allowed to visit since the pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020.

'It's going to be a bit sloppy at first,' Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian warned.

'I can assure you, there will be lines unfortunately,' Bastian said, adding that 'we'll get it sorted out.'

Incoming visitors must also have received a vaccine that was approved by the FDA or WHO - which excludes shots such as the Sputnik V from Russia or the CanSino from China. 

 Foreign travelers are being warned of long lines and crammed airport conditions when they are finally allowed to visit the US on Monday

In addition to vaccinations, visitors must also provide proper documentation to enter into the US

The list of approved US vaccines for travelers include Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. 

In terms of travel conditions, airlines such as United are expecting about 50 percent more total international inbound passengers on Monday as compared with the week before.

Delta also said it has seen a 450 percent increase in international point-of-sale bookings, compared to the six weeks prior to the announcement that the US was reopening.

'As we expect high demand when the US lifts its existing air and land travel restrictions Monday, we are taking critical steps to be prepared by providing additional resources,' White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said on Twitter.      

For passengers, the lifted restrictions will allow them to visit family members, friends, and loved ones who they have been apart from since the start of the pandemic. 

Bhavna Patel is booked on a Monday flight from London to New York to see her first grandchild after watching him grow up on FaceTime for more than a year. 

Another passenger, Anna Zwing, 28, is flying from Frankfurt to Chicago to see her boyfriend for the first time in over two years. 

'My boyfriend and I are super excited and are counting down the hours til we're finally reunited again!' Zwing said in an email, according to CNN. 'He keeps telling me that he can barely sleep out of excitement.

'For me it's still so surreal that it's actually about to happen! So I'll believe it when I land in Chicago.'

The rules have barred most non-U.S. citizens who within the prior 14 days have been in 33 countries -- the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, China, India, South Africa, Iran, Brazil, Britain and Ireland.

Trade group U.S. Travel said the countries accounted for 53 per cent of all overseas visitors to the United States in 2019 and border communities were hit hard by the loss of tourists crossing from Mexico and Canada. 

The list of approved US vaccines for travelers include Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca

The group estimates declines in international visitation 'resulted in nearly $300 billion in lost export income' since March 2020.

U.S. airlines are boosting flights to Europe and other destinations that were impacted by the restrictions. 

Airlines are planning events on Monday with executives meeting some of the first flights.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and United Airlines President Brett Hart are holding an event at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Monday to mark the reopening.

U.S. officials also are planning an Instagram live chat on Nov. 9 to help answer questions.

Many international flights are expected to operate close to full or full on Monday, with high passenger volume throughout the following weeks.

Airlines will check vaccination documentation for international travelers as they currently do for COVID-19 test results. 

At land border crossings, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will ask if travelers have been vaccinated and spot check some documentation.

Children under 18 are exempt from the new vaccine requirements. 

Non-tourist travelers from nearly 50 countries with nationwide vaccination rates of less than 10 per cent will also be eligible for exemption.

Also Monday, new contact tracing rules will take effect requiring airlines to collect information from international air passengers if needed 'to follow up with travelers who have been exposed to COVID-19 variants or other pathogens.'

An employee is seen receiving an injection of the Sputnik V vaccine at the River Park Hotel in Novosibirsk, Russia

The CanSino vaccine was one of the first created in summer 2020

In addition, hopeful foreign travelers who have received the unapproved Sputnik V and CanSino shots are now pushing to get US-approved vaccines to gain access into the country.

The Sputnik V vaccine has been used in about 70 countries worldwide.

Both vaccines became one of the first registered for their respective countries during summer 2020 only months after the global COVID outbreak.

The WHO has yet to approve the Sputnik V vaccine for an emergency list using despite mass worldwide distribution.

'There are exactly zero reasons for such decisions,' Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Russian Duma said, according to Associated Press. 

'The effectiveness and safety of the Sputnik V vaccine has been proven not only by specialists, but also by its practical application.'

Russia was added in the high-risk travel category this week by the CDC as a surge of cases have been reported. The country also only has a 34 per cent vaccination rate.

China has yet to ease travel restrictions, despite 75 per cent of the population being vaccinated. 

Other Asian Pacific countries, however, have began the process of opening their borders to foreign travelers.     

The US is bracing for international visitors on Monday following the lift of COVID travel restrictions on Monday. A section of the Texas-Mexico border wall is closed off in anticipation of the influx of foreign travelers