SENTRI lanes at border are slowing down
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050426-9...
By Diane Lindquist
April 26, 2005
Special traffic lanes created to speed preapproved commuters across the U.S.-Mexico border into San Diego are getting clogged.
Holders of the U.S. fast-pass authorization cards are complaining of waits of an hour or more at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings.
Previously, it took only a few minutes to clear the border using the special SENTRI lanes.
"Sometimes the SENTRI lines are longer than the other lines," Tijuana businessman Ascan Lutteroth said. "It affects San Diego County negatively. It
affects the whole region, not just one side or the other."
And now, border inspectors are seeing a number of people using the lanes to smuggle drugs into the United States.
On April 19, Marcelo Moreno-Medina, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested, accused of hauling 450 pounds of marijuana in a pickup through one of
the San Ysidro SENTRI lanes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said Moreno-Medina told agents he was recruited by drug
smugglers because he had a SENTRI transponder.
Initially, drug traffickers stole the transponders, which are affixed to vehicles' windows, Mack said. But when the automated equipment pinpointed
discrepancies between transponders and the SENTRI cards assigned to them, the traffickers switched to recruiting authorized cardholders.
While border agents might be scrutinizing SENTRI crossers more intensely, that does not fully explain why the lanes have grown so long.
"We are a victim of our own success," said Vince Bond, local Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
The lanes set aside for SENTRI users can't accommodate all the people that have been approved to use them, Bond said. In all, 61,000 people are
enrolled in the program to use the two lanes at the San Ysidro vehicle crossing and the one lane at Otay Mesa.
And the number of users is growing. Previously, about 650 SENTRI cards and transponders were issued per month. But last month, 900 were given out. And
Customs and Border Protection expect to issue more than 1,000 by the end of April.
This week, Bond said, the agency expects to receive a shipment of an additional 10,000 transponders.
Two more SENTRI lanes were expected to open this month at San Ysidro and one at the downtown Calexico port of entry, but there is still work to be
completed, said Liza Davis, spokeswoman at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana.
The engineering and design phase is finished, she said, but the work has yet to be put up for bid and no date has been set.
Meanwhile, a conversion from the plastic cigarette-pack-sized transponders to a credit-card-sized proximity card and a centralized processing system
that would let approved San Diego and Tijuana residents use any SENTRI lanes along the U.S.-Mexico border is also stalled with no start date set.
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, whose district abuts the border, said he has encountered resistance to solving the SENTRI problems.
"We're doing all we can to make sure Washington understands our situation, but they don't really understand it ? or want to," he said.
The SENTRI program, or Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection, was implemented at the Otay Mesa port of entry on Nov. 1, 1995. The
premise was to use automatic vehicle-identification technology to reduce congestion at the border crossings.
Users are approved for the program based on law enforcement checks of their backgrounds.
The cost is about $130, with special consideration for entire families.
A similar program is used along the U.S.-Canada border.
After the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the SENTRI program became a touted component of the Bush administration's commitment to create "smart
borders" that promote both national and economic security.
At that time, the number of monthly SENTRI crossings at San Ysidro and Otay Mesa totaled more that 180,000. Current figures were unavailable
yesterday.
But now, people are complaining that the program has not kept up with the flow of people across the border.
"It's a mess," said one Tijuana resident. He said lines back up into the Tijuana River zone and take one to two hours to cross during morning,
afternoon and evening rush hours ? the same amount of time or more than it takes to cross in the regular lanes.
"It's a total rip-off," said another Tijuana resident who has had a SENTRI card for four years. "They shouldn't have sold so many. Most of my friends
are getting very upset."
Both asked not to be identified for fear that U.S. officials would take away their passes. SENTRI rules can seem strict and arbitrary, they said.
Inspectors, for instance, can seize the pass and transponder of someone carrying a sandwich containing avocado, a prohibited food, and bar the
traveler from gaining another fast pass for two years.
James Clark, director of the Mexico Business Center of the San Diego Regional Chamber, said the frequent backups are interfering with business
conducted across the border, including the maquiladora manufacturing industry.
Tijuana residents are estimated to spend about $10 billion in San Diego each year, according to the San Diego Associations of Governments, the
countywide planning agency.
"People are not going to bother to come over here if they have to be in line like that," Clark said.
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