Gustavo Solis

The Desert Sun

A California border town is seeing big profits from Mexico’s gasoline price hike.

Angry about a 20 percent price increase in Mexico, protesters in the border town of Mexicali blocked gas distribution sites in the first week of January, leaving the city’s gas stations bone dry by Jan. 8.

Across the border in Calexico, gas stations are seeing a temporary boom in sales while vehicles wait an hour or longer to fill up.

“It’s great for us,” said Juan Arce, the manager of two SoCo Stations in the small Imperial County border town. “I do feel bad for the people to the south.”

Some gas stations throughout Calexico – a town of 40,000 people that borders a city of 680,000 – have tripled their sales.

SoCo Gas Station is one of 10 gas stations along Imperial Avenue within a mile from the U.S./Mexico border. All of them saw their sales increase since the price hike in Mexico.

“It’s been more than double,” said an excited Carlos Vera, the manager of a Shell gas station a few blocks north of the SoCo.

READ MORE: Protesters block trains traveling across Arizona-Mexico border after gasoline prices spike

On a good day, the Shell station can sell up to 5,000 gallons of gas. But since Sunday, they’ve been selling almost 10,000. The station has had to refill every day from its distributor, Vera added.

The gas protests in Mexico have spawned another concern: longer wait times at the border.

Those desperate for gas in Mexicali have to endure above average wait times to cross into the U.S. Jose Luis Aguilar, a cab driver, waited two and a half hours to enter the U.S. on Monday. He filled his car up and waited another two and a half hours to get back into Mexicali.

“I didn’t make any money,” he said. “At least the drivers with a visa can fill up – the cab drivers without a visa are screwed."

On Wednesday morning, motorists filled up gallon containers of gasoline to bring back with them into Mexico. Some even filled up metal barrels and empty laundry detergent containers in order to give gasoline to friends and family unable to cross the border.

“My friend hasn’t had gas in almost two weeks,” said Anabel Solorsano, who lives on the U.S. side of the border and was trying to take gallon containers south.

Mexico’s gas controversy began on Jan. 1, when the price of gasoline increased across the nation. The president said this is a necessary step to deregulate the country’s entire energy sector. The move is estimated to bring in foreign gas companies and boost the economy.

In Mexico, the price hike was seen as just one of a long list of reasons to protest. The scandal-plagued president has a historically low approval rating, violent crime is on the rise and the peso has been losing value ever since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election.

On Wednesday morning, federal police officers in Mexicali cleared the road so that gasoline distributors could refill gas stations. By the afternoon, some were open but the demand was so high that lines to the pumps were more than an hour long.

Calexico's gas station operators hope the increased sales last a couple of more days.

“I’ve seen people that have never been here before,” said Arce from the SoCo. “Hopefully we got a few new customers.”

Immigration Reporter Gustavo Solis can be reached at 760 778 6443 or by email at gustavo.solis@desertsun.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @journogoose.