San Diego Metropolitan - The Connection

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 requires the Department of Homeland Security to establish an automated entry/exit system at all ports of entry — air, sea and land. Known as United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, or US-Visit for short, the program will be designed to “collect, maintain and share information, including biometric identifiers, through a dynamic system, on foreign nationals.” That information will be used to determine if the person should be allowed into the country, get special attention or have their immigration status changed.

The system also is supposed to make the flow of people and goods legitimately crossing the border smoother while at the same time strengthening national cooperation and respecting privacy laws.

The deadline is Dec. 31 for this to start working, including the biometric identifiers, at all airports and seaports. The system also must be deployed by Jan. 1, 2005, at the 50 largest land ports. San Diego is the nation’s largest.

No doubt there is an urgent national security need for the United States to know who to keep out, and who have overstayed their visa. There won’t be much argument on why we should have such a system — but there is an argument about whether it can be set up in time since the technology needed is not yet available, and the manpower to carry out the mission is not present or funded. In July, agency officials said they are planning to release a request for proposals by Nov. 30, receive proposals in January 2004 and award the contract in May 2004.

June would be the earliest the contractor would start working on getting the technology in place and working within six months.

The federal General Administrative Office issued a report criticizing the massive entry-exit plan, citing the lack of available technology, insufficient manpower and the projected $7.2 billion cost. The GAO estimates the cost could more than double.

In looking at a land crossing in Blaine, Wash., the GAO forecasts 2.9 million vehicles enter the United States from Canada each year. Putting this system in place would add nine seconds wait per car, causing an 11-hour back-up.

Between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry the number of cars entering in the United States in 2000 was 18.95 million, more than six times Blaine’s border traffic. If the nine-second delay holds, it would translate into a 66-plus hour backup in Tijuana. Already, a San Diego Dialogue study shows the percentage of cars waiting up to 20 minutes to cross averages 64 percent; 31 percent take longer than 30 minutes to cross. This is only to enter the country. The US-Visit program also is screening those leaving.

The North County’s high housing costs led many San Diegans to choose homes in southern Riverside County. A similar condition in the South County is sending more Americans to find housing refuge in the Tijuana/Tecate/Rosarito region. This is turn converts to about 30,000 daily border crossers — north in the mornings, south in the afternoons.

Entering Mexico is somewhat easier than entering the United States. At the southern end of Interstate 5 lies the entry point to Tijuana. Mexico has a red-green light system instead of inspectors processing one car at a time. If a car gets a green light it proceeds without stopping; if red, the car pulls into secondary inspection. It is simple, but nonetheless slow during peak hours due to the volume of cars entering Tijuana.

Interstate 805 merges into I-5 about a quarter of a mile from the border. Both I-805 and the I-5 are bumper-to-bumper for the better part of 1 1/2 miles from around 4 p.m. until after 6 p.m. This indicates the nonstop processing of about 15,000 cars per hour, which in turn indicates they enter Mexico at the rate of one per second based on five lanes operating. Adding the nine seconds per car average to a northbound visit into the United States would change the entry time to 10 seconds per car.

This would extend the two hour bumper-to-bumper south bound traffic by another eight or more hours. Northbound would be worse.

But there is good news. This kind of horrible traffic won’t happen. Why? Simply because those who return to Tijuana in the afternoon would still be in line to enter San Diego since morning, and they can’t be in two places at one time, that’s why.

Time and again studies indicate that longer border crossing waits have negative impacts on San Diego. Each year the regional economy gains as much as $5 billion from Baja residents’ local purchases. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when crossing times greatly increased, retail sales dove to the point that the San Diego City Council, on Dec. 10, 2001, unanimously approved a state of economic emergency.

Last month, Jim Williams, US-Visit director, toured the San Diego ports of entry and met with regional elected officials. At a meeting with the San Diego Association of Governments, his message was that a better line of communication is needed and that he doubted this US-Visit program would be put in place until proven technology was installed.

Prematurely starting such a program would result in its mission being unfulfilled while great harm was done to San Diego’s economy. In an earlier interview he said the effort was “an enormous task” and “may be nearly unachievable.”

It would be far better to first achieve success in developing the technology, and working out the system’s kinks and personnel training in the smallest land ports before deploying it to the 50 largest land ports. If that means postponing it here for one or two years, so be it.

Patrick Osio Jr. can be reached through San Diego Metropolitan or by e-mail at posiojr@sandiegometro.com.