U.S.-Mexico Border

Increased commercial truck traffic and the resulting congestion at some border crossings between the United States and Mexico, particularly older crossings that were built in downtown areas such as Laredo and El Paso, Texas, have taxed border community infrastructure. Lines of trucks--many of them empty--waiting to enter the United States can back up for miles during peak periods in the early to late afternoon, and the idling trucks contribute to air pollution and safety concerns in some major border cities. At the same time, crossings in remote and less accessible areas along the border are underused and less congested. Commercial traffic congestion at the U.S.-Mexico border is primarily caused by the high volume of vehicles at ports of entry that must be processed through facilities that have physical and technological limitations and cumbersome practices. Federal, state, and local governments as well as binational groups have responded to this situation with several initiatives. For example, ports of entry and roads leading to the border have been improved, and federal agencies have sought to integrate their inspection processes for commercial traffic and test new technologies for expediting commercial traffic. Likewise, binational mechanisms to encourage dialogue and coordination have been created. However, facilities planning and port of entry operations take place in a complex political and economic environment, so these efforts have been unable to keep pace with the rapid increase in the volume of goods crossing the border or to alleviate congestion.

GAO noted that: (1) increased commercial truck traffic and the associated congestion at some border crossings, particularly older crossings that were built in downtown areas such as Laredo and El Paso, Texas, have taxed border community infrastructure; (2) lines of trucks--many of them empty--waiting to enter the United States can run up to several miles during peak periods in early to late afternoon, and the idling trucks contribute to air pollution and safety concerns in some major border cities; (3) at the same time, crossings in remote and less accessible areas along the border such as Sasabe, Arizona, or Roma, Texas, are underutilized and less congested; (4) according to Customs Service records, nearly 47 percent of the 3.6 million containers that crossed the border in fiscal year (FY) 1998 from Mexico were empty; (5) government officials at the ports of entry must still process all trucks--empty or not--to ensure compliance with U.S. laws and regulations; (6) commercial traffic congestion at the U.S.-Mexico border is primarily caused by the high volume of vehicles at ports of entry that must be processed through the facilities that have physical and technological limitations and cumbersome practices; (7) the specific factors that contribute to border congestion include: (a) difficulties resulting from the multiple checks at the border by various federal and state agencies; (b) inspection agency staffing shortages at some border crossings; (c) limited use of automated management information systems for processing commercial traffic; (d) lack of land to expand port of entry operations; (e) inadequate roads leading to some ports of entry; and (f) poor port of entry planning among U.S. inspection agencies and limited coordination between the U.S. and Mexican governments; (8) federal, state, and local governments as well as binational groups have responded to congestion at the border with a variety of initiatives; (9) some infrastructure improvements at ports of entry and roads leading to the border have been undertaken and funded by federal and state agencies, and others have been funded and are scheduled to occur in the year 2000 and beyond; and (10) because facilities planning and port of entry operations take place in a complex political and economic environment characterized by competing interests and differing development priorities, these efforts collectively have neither been able to keep up with the rapid increase in the volume of goods crossing the border nor to alleviate congestion.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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