Mexico opens new $6.9 million, 3 story facility in Tijuana to control who comes into its country, requires passports, filled out forms, small fee if extended stay. Binational effort follows $741 million US spent to expand San Ysidro Port of Entry-San Diego Union-Tribune

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8/19/15, "New pedestrian crossing unveiled in Tijuana," San Diego Union-Tribune, Sandra Dibble, Tijuana, Mexico















"A new entrance to Mexico for pedestrians opened Wednesday at San Ysidro--a modern, three-story facility that authorities say will transform the experience of entering Mexico for some 22,000 southbound border crossers each day.

The $6.9 million structure, Puerta Este Mexico-San Ysidro, represents a new way of doing business at the border for Mexico, as the federal government seeks control of who comes into the country. 

With the new facilities, immigration officials are preparing to step up enforcement of a rule stipulating that foreigners present passports when entering Mexico, and requiring that those on business or who plan to stay for more than a week pay a 330-peso fee, about $21.

The new facility answers a need to “offer adequate, modern, comfortable, efficient, rapid and friendly service,” said Luis Videgaray, Mexico’s secretary of finance and public credit, one of a number of high-ranking U.S. and Mexican officials attending the Wednesday inauguration.

Authorities said that the building will be a model that can be replicated at other crossings as Mexico upgrades its border infrastructure. For the first time, foreigners will be processed in separate lines from Mexican nationals.

“The way that people enter Mexico has been growing very disorganized, and now we are making it organized, that’s the big difference,” said Carlos de la Fuente, general director of construction and appraisals for Indaabin, the Mexican agency in charge of building federal facilities.

Rodulfo Figueroa, who heads Mexico’s National Migration Institute in Baja California, has been working to assuage fears that the new measures could create lines of pedestrians waiting to enter Tijuana. While all foreign border crossers are required to show their passports and subject to filling out an entry form, the rule will not be uniformly enforced when the port gets busy, Figueroa said.

“I can tell you that the driver here is to comply with what Mexican law says, and do it in a seamless way, to have security, efficiency and order,” Figueroa said.

The pedestrian crossing is part of a massive binational reconfiguration of the congested U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro, described by U.S. and Mexican officials as the world’s busiest land border crossing. The United States has invested $741 million to expand the San Ysidro Port of Entry, a multiphase project that is expected to conclude in 2019. In September 2012, Mexico opened at $28 million vehicle port of entry, El Chaparral.

The opening of the pedestrian entrance gives rise to a series of other public and private projects planned on the Tijuana side. They include links to a future rapid-transit system, a public park, a medical plaza, and an enclosed pedestrian bridge built above the vehicle lanes.

Farther east, other changes have been taking place. In December, the developers of a privately operated cross-border pedestrian bridge leading from Otay Mesa to Tijuana’s A.L. Rodríguez International Airport expect to begin operations. Plans are also moving forward for the State Route 11/Otay Mesa East Port of Entry, which would be the first tolled vehicle crossing on the California-Mexico border and serve both commercial and passenger traffic.

Other high-profile public figures at Wednesday’s ceremony included Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, Mexico’s foreign minister; and Pedro Joaquín Caldwell, Mexico’s energy secretary.

“This is a building that not only improves the image, but at the same time creates an important point of encounter for families, tourists, and commerce,” Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de la Madrid said.

The facility is located east of the northbound vehicle lanes leading into San Ysidro. Built with state and federal funds, it replaces a provisional entrance with stairways and ramps with hairpin turns that had been used since September 2012, when the U.S. government opened its new pedestrian crossing into Mexico on the eastern side of the port. The makeshift installation was drab and difficult to navigate, especially for elderly and handicapped crossers, or those pushing strollers and carrying packages. And inspections were minimal....

A 72-year-old Tijuana resident wheeling a cart with used closing she intended to sell said she was afraid of scrutiny of customs inspectors. A 24-year-old U.S. citizen living without documents in Rosarito Beach said she worried about paying the fee....
 
Baja California Tourism Secretary Oscar Escobedo called the new port “something that was long overdue.” But he is trying to persuade federal officials that short-term foreign visitors passing through the new port should not be required to fill out an entry form.

“It’s illogical that if you drive across, you don’t need to fill out the form, and if you walk across, you need to fill out the form.”"

Image caption: "Foreign visitors to Mexico will have their own line as they enter Mexico's new pedestrian entrance at San Ysidro. — Alejandro Tamayo"


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