We need both short and long-term solutions to the challenges our nation faces in securing our borders while fostering the trade that helps fuel our economic prosperity.

For the past eight years, I have worked with UTEP to support our annual Border Security Conference by bringing high-level U.S. and Mexican leaders to El Paso to examine ways to enhance security, promote legitimate trade and travel, and improve our binational community.  We have been fortunate to have key policy makers, academics, and private sector representation at the highest levels from the U.S. and Mexico engaged in this critical dialogue.  This year, we heard from the United States Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, who made his debut appearance in El Paso since his appointment by President Obama.  Ambassador Kirk made it clear that U.S. trade with Mexico is stronger than ever, at almost $1 billion a day in goods and services. 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Alan Bersin also attended the conference and addressed wait times at the border.  Commissioner Bersin shares my concerns about the difficulties CBP is having with staffing at ports of entry. I have been working with the Commissioner on wait times, and helped pass legislation to secure additional emergency funds for border security, including 250 new CBP officers. Shortly after passage of the bill, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called to tell me that the largest number of new officers -78- would be coming to El Paso.  To date, 26 of the 78 have been hired and trained and should be in place in El Paso within the next few months. The rest should be hired by the end of next month and will begin moving through the training process. 

I also pushed the Administration to include funding to hire even more CBP officers in the President's 2012 budget proposal that is currently making its way through Congress. At a time when the federal budget is being cut to the bone, the President's budget included an additional 300 officers, and I am working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to keep the funding for those officers. The Homeland Security funding bill recently passed the House of Representatives included funds for the 300 extra officers, and some of those officers will be assigned to El Paso. 

Also addressing the staffing shortfalls is legislation that I introduced that includes more increases for CBPOs, in addition to improving infrastructure at the ports. The data I used to draft the Putting Our Resources Toward Security (PORTS) Act has helped me convince my colleagues in Congress and the Administration to increase CPBOs and infrastructure even in these tough budgetary times.  Delays and other inefficiencies at the border cost the U.S. and Mexican economies an estimated $7.2 billion in gross economic output and an estimated 62,000 jobs.  At a time when job creation is critical, this should resonate with everyone.

My PORTS legislation would dramatically increase funding and staffing levels at America's land ports of entry to help combat the illegal transport of drugs, money, and weapons between the United States and Mexico and would also reduce excessive bridge wait times.  The bill would provide $5 billion through 2016 to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), to repair and modernize infrastructure at all U.S. land ports of entry, and would also provide funding for an additional 5,000 CBP agents to improve inspections and reduce traffic congestion.  The PORTS Act has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Border Trade Alliance, and the National Treasury Employees Union.

The construction of new border infrastructure is critical to border communities like El Paso, and the recent ground breaking for the new Guadalupe-Tornillo port of entry is an important step to meeting our needs.  After working for years to secure the necessary presidential permit and $94 million in funding for this new port, I am pleased that we will have six additional lanes of capacity and a more rapid route between major commercial and industrial centers and new roadways connecting nearby Interstate 10, providing a more direct route for border traffic.  This will provide relief to the current ports of entry in El Paso that handle about 10 million vehicles crossing each year, and will be an important economic driver, particularly for the far east El Paso County area.

Even with the additional port of entry at Tornillo, it is critical for that we understand both the capacity of all ports in the El Paso region and also how the ports impact our transportation system.  That is why I secured funding for a study to provide us with this important data. The recently completed Regional Ports of Entry Operations Plan is a detailed review of all existing ports of entries within the El Paso region and analyzes how the ports currently function and how the ports need to function collectively to improve cross border mobility.  

While the results of the analysis show some things that we already know - that the volume of passenger and commercial vehicles crossing the border, both north and southbound, is already straining the efficiency of our ports – the report provides a thoroughly documented and analytically proven resource that I can use with my colleagues and other policy makers in Washington.    The regional growth projections in the study indicate that by 2035- and in some cases earlier- all of the region’s existing crossings will suffer from unacceptable wait times if no improvements are made.

The study identified a number of operational, policy, and engineering strategies to address these concerns. While these improvements alone will not completely solve all the performance issues at the ports of entry, they will help to maximize the capacity that does exist within the system.  We must continue to reduce border wait times and air pollution; increase cross border commerce and tourism in the region; enhance economic development; and coordinate traffic patterns. The Operations Plan not only shows us what we have to work with now, but will be used to develop our overall border master plan, a process which will be underway in the near future. 

Balancing security and commerce is more difficult than ever, given the situation faced by our friends in Juarez and across Mexico.   However, through partnerships, cooperation, innovation, and hard work, we can enhance border commerce and help businesses and workers in our region while maintaining our security.  Our future depends on it.