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The federal government’s indifference to local border issues goes beyond its slow-motion response to the South Bay’s sewage nightmare. Now U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the largest federal law enforcement agency of the Department of Homeland Security, is quietly provoking one more crisis. Consider two of its recent major announcements that affect the livelihood of tens of thousands of Americans and foreign visitors, presented in statements that offer very little explanation.
On Dec. 7, for the second time this year, CBP announced the closing of the Pedestrian West crossing in San Ysidro, effective Dec. 9, “in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody.”
Six days earlier, on Dec. 1, using almost the same phrasing, the agency announced the temporary closure of the entire port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, suspending both northbound and southbound pedestrian and vehicle traffic “until further notice.”
Lukeville is a small and remote town 115 miles south of Phoenix and next to the Mexican border city of Sonoyta. It is one of six border crossings from Arizona into Mexico, and the fourth busiest in of engers and pedestrian traffic, with over 90,000 engers in vehicles and a little more than 5,000 pedestrians crossing during October, according to federal statistics. It’s widely known as the main route to travel from Arizona to the beach town of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, also called Rocky Point, a town with 62,000 people that depends on tourism. It turned into a “ghost land,” according to local media, after the Lukeville closure.
That is terrible news for Rocky Point. But it is a fraction of the devastation resulting from what is happening in San Ysidro, the busiest land port of entry in the Western Hemisphere. It’s where 70,000 vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians are processed each day and where closing one artery of the system is a recipe for disaster. A day after the PedWest closure, lawful travelers reported up to six-hour waits to enter the country, especially during the busy holiday season. Now travelers are posting pictures and videos on social media of gigantic lines, which snake around the city of Tijuana. The nightmare will surely keep going at least until schools’ winter break, when the many students from Tijuana who go to schools in San Diego stop crossing.
, those being grossly inconvenienced are lawful crossers — students and workers who seek better opportunities in this country. They include business owners and retailers from Tijuana whose income depends on the goods they buy in the U.S. and resell in Mexico and patients with medical appointments to attend. Some are fronterizos, families with relatives on both sides of the border, many of them American citizens. Some are elderly or have disabilities. Some are mothers with young children in tow. Their crossings are a fundamental part of life for the binational community and a critical economic engine for the San Diego-Tijuana region. San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce said slowing border crossings put an estimated $400 million at risk that local businesses usually generate during the holiday shopping season from Nov. 20 to Jan. 6.
In Arizona, in the days following the Lukeville closure, Gov. Katie Hobbs visited the area and both the state’s U.S. senators — Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly — ed her in a statement calling for the federal government to reverse its decision.
But in California, no such reaction was forthcoming from the state’s most powerful leaders, although several local lawmakers made public statements about it. It was the Mexican federal government that made a public call to the U.S. government on Dec. 12 to immediately resume operations at the closed crossings “in order to avoid significant economic losses on both sides of the border.”
Two things are clear: There’s one more crisis at the San Diego border affecting lawful travelers — and U.S. authorities have no intention to solve it.
