Anonymous - 6-11-2005 at 12:43 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050611-9...
By Diane Lindquist
June 11, 2005
A third SENTRI lane opened early yesterday at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, immediately cutting wait times that had grown to an hour or more at the
fast-pass lanes.
The added lane diminished waits in the special northbound lanes to just a few minutes, said Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce executive director Alejandra
Mier y Teran.
"I've already talked to several people who used the lane, and they said it was excellent," Mier y Teran said.
Users of the SENTRI lanes, who undergo a background check and pay about $130 for a fast-pass card and vehicle transponder that allows them to cross in
special lanes at San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, had complained for months that wait times in the SENTRI lanes had grown longer than in the regular
passenger-car crossing lanes.
Although U.S. Customs and Border Protection had promised to add lanes as more people enrolled in the program, funds had not been released for the
expansion.
By early May, however, work began on increasing the number of lanes at San Ysidro and upgrading the technology used in the program.
A fourth SENTRI lane is under construction at San Ysidro and should open in the next few weeks, according to a Customs and Border Protection news
release.
The agency estimates that 7,200 vehicles enter the United States every day through the SENTRI lanes at San Ysidro, the world's busiest land border
station. An average of 55,000 vehicles per day are processed through the crossing's 24 lanes.
No expansion is planned at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, which has one SENTRI lane.
A SENTRI lane is planned later this year for the Calexico Port of Entry, which has no fast-pass lanes.
The program, officially known as the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection, is a critical component of the Homeland Security
agency's program to promote national security.
It is carried out in conjunction with the Mexican government, which along with the U.S. government conducts background checks on all applicants for
the SENTRI program to identify those who are low-risk.
Recently, however, inspectors have been seeing a number of people using the lanes to smuggle drugs into the United States.
About 60,000 cross-border travelers are registered in the SENTRI program in the San Diego-Tijuana region. A similar program called NEXUS is in force
along the U.S.-Canada border.