Photo Credit: Eric Blum

The San Ysidro Border Inspection Station between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico on most days faces a river of cars as far as the eye can see. More than 17 million cars passed through the facility’s 24 lanes during fiscal year 2006, making it the busiest land port in the nation.

It is the busiest land port in the United States, with 40 million travelers processed last year. The San Ysidro port of entry, smack in the middle of the growing San Diego-Tijuana urban area, may even be the busiest land port in the world.

“I’m not sure if we are the busiest in the world,” said CBP’s San Ysidro Assistant Port Director Scott Jackson. “But I’m sure that we are very, very busy.”

How busy? The port handles 110,000 travelers a day, or an average of 4,500 an hour, around the clock. One of every four buses that enter the U.S. comes through San Ysidro. A quarter of all inadmissible aliens encountered at Mexican border ports are discovered at San Ysidro. One in five of all arrests at U.S. ports of entry occur here.

But San Ysidro was constructed during the Nixon administration, when the region had about a third the population it has today. Before border administration became a national security imperative. Before the economic realities in Mexico made the U.S. an irresistible magnet.

Today San Ysidro is busting at the seams and is stressed near to the breaking point to meet current obligations. No one wants to think about tomorrow, as the region is expected to continue to grow, and the busy port has no room to expand.

How busy? Wait times average about an hour during most of the day, but often reached 2-1/2 hours pre-Christmas. Wait times are so long that the line of pedestrians can extend for miles, 3,500 people deep. The queue of cars snakes as far as the eye can see. Back-ups of cars trying to get through the checkpoint extend down on-ramps, onto city blocks in Tijuana, causing gridlock.

“Clearly, this is a difficult situation and is rapidly approaching being an impossible situation,” said CBP Commissioner W. Ralph Basham. “The expansion and reconstruction of the port at San Ysidro is CBP’s number one facility issue nationally.”

A matter of effectiveness and safety

Regional and national CBP officials are concerned about wait times, inconvenience for travelers and economic impact on both sides of the border. They cite studies showing that the bottleneck at San Ysidro cost the U.S. economy more than $3.5 billion in 2006.

“Our main concern at San Ysidro is efficiency and safety,” said CBP San Diego Field Office Director Adele Fasano. “We want to do our job effectively and we want to keep everyone safe, and it is becoming harder to do that. It is an extreme concern.”

Photo Credit: Eric Blum

A CBP canine team patrols the lanes leading to the inspection booths at San Ysidro. These teams helped CBP uncover almost 100,000 pounds of illicit drugs in fiscal year 2006.

San Ysidro over time has crammed in 24 vehicle lanes and 16 pedestrian lanes. Inside the facility are administrative areas, interview rooms, detention cells, office cubes, agricultural laboratories, drug holding areas and much more. The problem is they are not laid out in a logical manner. Just outside the executive offices are holding cells. Areas for the general public bump up against areas for criminals.

Out back, in an area designed for employee parking, is the secondary inspection area where vehicles are searched for contraband or hidden people. In the midst of this most sensitive area is a small building where the general public must go to apply for documents.

Assistant Port Director Jackson’s wish list for San Ysidro is a facility “where we can consolidate our processes, where we can keep the good people from the bad people, and where we can fit more lanes.”

Years of planning

These challenges did not pop up overnight. San Ysidro began to strain under the weight of its workload years ago. Plans for reconstruction began during the 1990s. Environmental impact assessments were started in 1999.

Photo Credit: Eric Blum

The fastest way through San Ysidro is via the SENTRI lane, dedicated to frequent travelers who provide background information and pay for membership. Here a traveler points his identification card at a sensor before proceeding to the booth.

Today, the U.S. General Services Administration has an expansion project overview on their Web site, with a timeline that calls for completion in late 2012. To those working at San Ysidro, that seems like a long way off. The hope is that Congress, the state of California, the Department of Homeland Security and GSA will step up and fast-track upgrades at San Ysidro.

While there are four alternative plans in existence, the scheme that seems to have the greatest support on both sides of the border calls for the U.S. to buy the southbound lanes into Mexico for expansion, and to relocate the southbound lanes to the east. The port would be reconstructed, but would have to remain open while the work is completed.

Security shortcomings

Many public facilities today have security enhancements to protect workers and the public, such as metal detectors, plexiglass windows and security cameras. San Ysidro officers and employees would benefit greatly from these common enhancements, but they are not in place. And San Ysidro is an environment where criminal activity is common, tempers are short and the desperation levels run high.

Another shortcoming is the visibility of the secondary screening area. Pedestrians stream over a walkway and below them in clear view is the area where cars are searched for drugs. Taxi drivers parked on a nearby bridge also have a view of this area. This open process is far from ideal.

Even canines have it tough. They work hard through the maze of moving cars lined up at the gates, alerting on hidden drugs and people. Detector dogs are valued weapons at San Ysidro. But there is no place for them to rest. Their handlers huddle them in the back of their cars, where they eat, drink and sleep, readying themselves for their next shift.

“You just make do,” said Lee Deloatch, supervisory CBP officer. “Everyone at San Ysidro knows that the facility is not perfect, but we do what we need to do to make it work. We’re just afraid that soon it may not be workable at all.” Deloatch had just noticed a new chain that helped guide pedestrians through their line. One of his fellow officers had bought the chain at a hardware store and brought it in, donating it to the cause.

It just keeps on flowing

The river of cars and people lined up to proceed through the port just keeps on coming. Although it usually slacks off between midnight and 4 a.m., officers cannot remember the last time they could see the end of the queue during daylight hours.

Some second floor offices feature a bird’s eye view of the 24 lanes of waiting cars. Most can’t remember seeing the end of the river of cars during daylight hours—unless they were there last early summer when protesters prevented cars from proceeding to the port. Other than that, the line just continues to grow.

The wait leads to some unusual sights and practices. Cars often run out of gas or overheat and must be pushed through the booths. Vendors set up shop in the midst of the idling traffic, selling cold drinks, food, clothing and trinkets. When the wait gets bad for vehicles, especially during work hours, travelers park their cars, walk through the port and get on the light rail system in San Ysidro. When pedestrian lines get too long, they head back to their cars.

And this is not solely a commuting problem. Most crossers do so to shop. Many are U.S. citizens that have visited Mexico to visit family or for entertainment or for less expensive services.

Some bypass San Ysidro by driving east to the Otay Mesa port, which was built in 1985. Otay Mesa became the designated commercial port in the area when trucks were no longer processed at San Ysidro in 1994.

Currently, innovative commuters have a new trick. Some will arrive at the port around 2 a.m. and drive up to a closed booth, bypassing the line at the open booths. There they will turn their cars off, lean back and go to sleep. When the booth reopens at 4 a.m., the CBP officer wakes them, they speed through the port and head off to work.

“It is amazing what people will do to avoid the long wait,” Officer Deloatch said. “We’ve seen it all.”

One success story is the SENTRI program for frequent crossers. Begun a decade ago at San Ysidro, it provides dedicated lanes for those who join the program, get pre-screened and present their membership card at the booth. Their information pops up on a monitor, greatly speeding the process. The dedicated lanes mean wait times are greatly reduced.

Meeting obligations

Field Director Fasano said that the expansion of the port is her top priority. “All of our CBP employees are concerned about wait times and inconveniences at San Ysidro,” she said. “And we are constantly looking for solutions, both big and small.

“But our main mission is preventing terrorism, and we will continue to do all we can do to secure America’s borders from those who would do us harm or break our laws. Those who use San Ysidro have shown that they understand this and we appreciate their cooperation.

“We all hope that the public’s patience will soon be rewarded with a port that will allow us to hire new officers, reduce wait times, consolidate our functions, assure the safety of all at the port and fulfill our mission,” Fasano said. “We look forward to meeting our obligations and being a good neighbor far into the future.”