On the border: Programs aim to expedite cargo crossings

A customs inspector at the Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego checks sample shipments of sunflowers for suspect pests and diseases as the truck driver of the Mexican cargo stands by.

As an agricultural employer, Steve Scaroni is so frustrated with the labor shortages he faces every harvest that last year he began moving a significant part of his operation to Mexico.

His company, Valley Harvesting & Packing Inc. in Heber, employs 1,500 workers and harvests fresh fruit and vegetables throughout California and Arizona.

"I do everything in Mexico that I do in the United States," said Scaroni, who grows mostly leafy greens and has operations in San Diego, Imperial and Salinas valleys. "The reason for my moving my operation to Mexico is because of our dysfunctional, broken-down immigration system. We don't have enough legal workers in the United States, and there's no solution on the horizon."

While shifting his operation across the border "is working great" and has solved some of his labor problems, there is one trade-off: difficulty shipping his goods back to the homeland.

Scaroni said that legal entry into the United States—whether it is vehicular, pedestrian or commercial—has been greatly impeded due to long lines, fewer open lanes and lack of staffing at border crossings.

Border crossing at Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego.

"As more focus and emphasis is put on illegal aliens, people who are trying to get across legally are suffering," he said. "The lines are getting longer and longer and the legal way to get across is becoming harder and harder."

Whereas an hour was once considered to be a long wait to get across, it now takes double the time, he said. With truckloads of fresh produce to deliver, Scaroni said these long waits are unacceptable.

"I think we need to work on protecting our border, but I think we also need to expedite and give resources to legal forms of entry," he added.

Scaroni said he participates in programs such as FAST (Free and Secure Trade) and SENTRI (Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection) to expedite his crossings. Both programs pre-screen importers, carriers, drivers and commuters so that low-risk cargo shipments and passenger vehicles could move across the border more quickly.

But Scaroni said heavy border traffic has significantly slowed these fast-pass lanes. He noted that it took him an hour to clear the border using the special SENTRI lane at Otay a few weeks ago.At a later date, took his son more than two hours crossing from Mexicali in the regular vehicle line.

According to a 2005 San Diego Association of Governments report, wait times at the borders are costing the area economy $4 billion annually. The problem has prompted Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, to ask the Department of Homeland Security to improve border efficiency and reduce wait times at all ports of entry along the Mexico-U.S. border. He also has called for additional fast-pass lanes to be open at Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports of entry.

A group traveling with the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) this month got a firsthand look at how the expedited program works for cargo traffic at the Otay Mesa port of entry, which became the first on the California-Mexico border to open a dedicated FAST lane. It currently has eight standard lanes for commercial trucks, 12 standard lanes for passengers and one SENTRI lane. However, not all standard lanes are always open.

The border visit was part of an annual agricultural tour organized by the NCAE. This year the California Farm Bureau Federation, an NCAE member, along with Harry Singh & Sons, the state's largest vine-ripe tomato producer, hosted the tour that included visits to the Oceanside tomato farm and two nurseries in northern San Diego County.

As the largest commercial crossing on the California-Mexico border, the Otay Mesa port of entry is a major gateway for both exports and imports. Each year more than 1.4 million trucks cross through this border carrying more than $23 billion worth of products—nearly all of it related to regional agricultural and manufacturing sectors, according the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

During the recent border tour, a customs inspector was seen scrutinizing sample shipments of sunflowers while the truck driver stood by holding his breath for fear his cargo would be turned back if suspect bugs or diseases are found in the flowers. If rejected, he would have to drive two hours back to the farm, the driver said.

Most importers going through Otay are pretty reputable, said Customs and Border Protection officials, because they don't want bad marks on their record, which could trigger further inspections and delays on future shipments.

Shipping companies are required to provide data in advance for all cargo containers before they reach the port. This data is used for screening high-risk cargo. Not all commercial vehicles are inspected. Those that are chosen are given visual inspections and document reviews, which could take several hours if shipments are deemed suspicious.

X-ray technology is used to examine all suspicious containers. Using this equipment, inspectors are able to see inconsistencies in shapes inside the cargo that raise red flags for further inspection. Border agents say narcotics smuggling has dropped in the last six years since the implementation of the X-ray equipment because traffickers know the high risk involved. The technology has also minimized the smuggling of people in commercial vehicles, CDP officials said.

Luawanna Hallstrom, chief operating officer for Harry Singh & Sons, said she's been on at least five border tours over the last 22 years and always learns something new each time.

"You see that they definitely are getting much more technically advanced," she said. "They've got all kinds of satellites and scanning equipment that they didn't have before that help them to track things or movements that they couldn't normally see in the dark."

She said she was impressed with how thoroughly inspection agents go through all shipments to ensure that they are clean and free of pests that could threaten domestic agriculture.

"It was really a relief to see how hard they work inspecting everything that comes through, whether it was flowers, tomatoes or vehicles that drugs had been hidden in or vehicles that were stolen that were brought back in," said Hallstrom, who chairs CFBF's labor advisory committee. "That was important to understand, especially with all the pest infestations that we're so worried about."

Roy Gabriel, CFBF director of labor affairs, said he was surprised to learn from border patrol officer V.K. Stanfill that people try to jump the barbed wire fence into the fortified U.S. customs inspection facility every day at the Otay crossing.

"There are people in cars waiting for these people," said Stanfill of the illegal crossers.

Stanfill patrols the 2-mile fence with one other officer. He noted that on that particular morning, he had to chase away 25 people who tried to cross over.

"The actions of these people show their desperation in trying to get into this country to seek a better life by jumping into a U.S. prison-like facility and then jumping over another fence to run off and disappear," Gabriel said. "Clearly Congress has to get off the dime and pass comprehensive immigration reform and a more flexible temporary worker program."

(Ching Lee is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)