Border business leaders seek more Customs Officers and given short shrift by state legislative committee
by Hugh Holub on May. 26, 2011, under border issues, politicsFrom Arizona Republic May 26, 2011:
Nogales businessmen ask for more border agents
by Bob Christie – May. 26, 2011 12:00 AMAssociated Press
A plea from Nogales, Ariz., businessmen to a state border-security committee for help pressuring Washington to add staffing at ports of entry is receiving a cool reception
Three businessmen addressed a Border Security Advisory Committee at the state Capitol in Phoenix on Wednesday. They said Arizona is on the verge of losing lucrative business to other states because a lack of customs officers is keeping truck- and car-inspection lanes closed. That’s leading to hours-long waits and hurting business.
But the committee’s co-chairman, Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, said he won’t be asking for more federal workers, citing the need to cut government spending, not increase it. Putting more goods on trains is a better solution, he said.
“That would solve a lot of the traffic problems, relieving the federal personnel to inspect buses and cars and pedestrians,” Melvin said.The trio of businessmen from Nogales included Jaime Chamberlain, a produce importer and chairman of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, who said the lines of trucks waiting to enter the U.S. in Nogales have involved wait times of more than five hours in recent months.
The Nogales ports alone now need 200 additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, Chamberlain said. A current federal budget proposal adds 300 officers nationwide. He noted that an expansion of the Mariposa Port of Entry will increase it to eight truck lanes from four by October and add passenger lanes. When the project is complete in 2014, it also will have 12 passenger-vehicle lanes and bus and pedestrian lanes.
The committee, which has House and Senate members and several people appointed by Gov. Jan Brewer, is charged with coordinating border-security matters.
Chief among its duties is implementing a new law that will collect money from the public to pay for a state-built fence along unsecured sections of the U.S.-Mexican border.
The committee did not address the fence outside of statements at the opening of Wednesday’s meeting.
The money will be collected through a website that will go live on July 20.
COMMENT: Sad to see the Nogales business people got such short shrift from the state legislature.
Legal entry into the US by Mexican shoppers, and legal entry into the US by produce and goods represent billions of dollars of benefit to the state’s economy.
Improving the flow of legal people crossing the border and produce seems obvious…except to people who think anything coming from Mexico is a threat to the state.
Or maybe it is because most of the benefit of legal crossing of people and goods and produce mostly benefits the people of Baja Arizona.
The Nogales business people are right on with their quest for more Customs and Border Protection officers. The Mariposa Port of Entry is a giant traffic jam.
Let us hope the US Congress listens to them.
May 26th, 2011 on 9:57 pm
“You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Or now they’re going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol. Or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they’ll need a moat. (Laughter.) Maybe they want alligators in the moat. (Laughter.) They’ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That’s politics.”
President Obama, May 10, 2011