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Malin Burnham, co-chairman of the Smart Border Coalition, said business leaders in San Diego and Tijuana are working on programs that will speed up border crossings. Photo by Isabel Escalle.

LA JOLLA – The long wait for cars and trucks crossing the San Diego-Tijuana border is costing the region money – at least $5 billion a year, according to one study.

That hard economic fact has prompted a coalition of 20 business leaders on both sides of the border to join forces and propose changes that will make the border crossing “smarter” and more efficient.

“I’ve crossed that border many times and compared with the 50 or 60 borders around the world that I’ve probably crossed, it’s the worst managed of any border I’ve ever crossed in my life,” Malin Burnham, co-chairman of the Smart Border Coalition, told an audience of almost 100 on Jan. 25 at the Institute of the Americas. “That’s what we’re trying to overcome.”

Burnham, a prominent San Diego businessman who serves on the Institute of the Americas board of directors, said the coalition was formed in 2008 when he and others in the region, “got to looking at the border and we said, ‘This is nothing but a dumb border.’ “
When trucks are delayed at the border, the long wait can affect factories in the Midwest, the Northeast and the South.
Several measures have been put in place to move traffic more quickly, he said, such as the Sentri and Ready Lane that speed up border crossings for pre-screened passengers and those with U.S. travel documents.

A cross-border air terminal has also been proposed. If approved, ticketed U.S. passengers will have their own pedestrian border crossing leading from Otay Mesa to Tijuana’s A.L. Rodriguez International Airport, where they can board flights for Shanghai, Tokyo and destinations across Mexico.

“We are making progress,” said Burnham, “but there are a lot of different issues involved. Tijuana is the second largest city in North America on the Pacific Ocean. We need to treat it that way.”

Ambassador Charles S. Shapiro (right), president of the Institute of the Americas, moderated a Jan. 25 panel with San Diego businessman Malin Burnham (left) and James Clark (center), director of the Mexico Business Center. Photo by Isabel Escalle.Burnham and James Clark, coalition member and director of the Mexico Business Center, called for enhanced California drivers licenses that would allow for faster processing of passenger vehicles, as well as a pre-inspection program in Mexico for U.S.-bound trucks. These programs, they said, are critical to the economic health of the region.

“People from Tijuana buy houses in San Diego. They go to our museums. They go to Fashion Valley. They go to our theaters,” said Clark. “We are special and we’re not taking advantage of it.”

The challenge, Clark said, is helping communities throughout the United States understand that their economy is also affected by the long border waits. When tractor-trailers carrying time-sensitive goods are delayed at the border, the long wait can affect factories in the Midwest, the Northeast and the South.

“Where do the goods go when they cross the border? What companies are they going to?” Clark asked. “Telling people is the only way we can get the heart of the country to understand that they’re on the border, too.”
“We are making progress but there are a lot of issues involved.”
Burnham argued that the vehicular border crossing and the wall that divides the United States from Mexico are not effective in stopping anything except legal traffic and people authorized to enter the United States.

An FBI study showed that, “less than 10 percent of illegal anything – people, contraband, goods, what have you – is stopped by the border fence and the automobile ports,” said Burnham. “So why are we doing this to ourselves if less than 10 percent is stopped? The rest of it goes over, under or around the border.”

Burnham and Clark said concerns about drug violence are hampering efforts to streamline border crossings, even though homicides in Tijuana have dropped since the record number reported in 2008.

“Perceptions take a long time to change,” said Clark. “It’s easy to frighten people. It’s much harder to enlighten people.”

Burnham said people often ask him, “Is it safe to go to Mexico?”

“I ask them, ‘Are you in the drug world? If not, then it’s perfectly safe.’ “