The Crossing
By James Jay Carafano Posted in Immigration — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
San Ysidro is busiest land border crossing site in the world. Every day Customs and Border Protection officers check tens-of-thousands of people, cars, and buses back and forth from Mexico to the United States. They also arrest career violent criminals, absconders with felony warrants, drug smugglers, people smugglers, arms smugglers, people with forged documents, and illegal aliens. Spending time watching them do their job offers a real lesson in understanding how important their job is.
As border security gets better, illegals trying to enter the country will turn more and more to the legal points of entry to try and sneak in. As U.S. trade with Mexico continues to grow, the border becomes a more and more important “economic engine” for the United States. And, as more and more people use the ports of entry and exit everyday, the more and more important it becomes to ensure that folks can pass through them safely, securely and efficiently.
Congress loves to talk about border security while virtually ignoring the challenges at the land border crossing. The San Ysidro crossing was built in the 1970s. It is hopelessly outdated. The plan to rebuild the crossing does not envision finishing replacing the port of entry until 2014.
Security at San Ysidro is light years better than it was before 9/11. Unfortunately, the experience of crossing the border is light years worse. The day I was at the border the wait time to cross into the United States was an hour and a half.
Congress mandated a huge increase in the Border Patrol and billions for building walls on the border. The needs of the land ports of entry have gotten the attention they need.