U.S. border snare hurts businesses, group says

Activists at the Border Trade Alliance's annual conference on Monday decried what they see as a stagnant situation at America's borders.

The conference continues today at the Driskill Hotel at 604 Brazos St.

"It is now harder for a U.S. citizen to enter back into the country than it is for a foreign national," said Maria Luisa O'Connell, the alliance's president.

Workers, travelers and commercial freight must wait an hour or more at some of the southern border's busiest ports of entry, according to the Department of Homeland Security Web site. Some of the guests at the conference, however, described a more drastic problem than tourists and travelers being held up at border checkpoints.

Ross Hieb, deputy mayor of Yuma, Ariz., said he has seen instances in which Mexican workers must line up between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. to get into the U.S. in time for work.

"Border communities already bear a disproportionate burden agriculturally to make sure interior states get the produce they need," Hieb said. "We need a manageable guest worker program that expedites workers coming into the U.S., because right now we're not doing the best we can to get the workers we need across the border."

Part of the alliance's problem lies in the sheer number of agencies it has had to deal with in order to effect change.

In 2003, the inspection work forces of the U.S. Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Border Patrol were combined to form the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in an effort to simplify agency interaction.

But O'Connell said the new system has led to a decrease in staff at many ports of entry, which contributes to what she views as an increasingly alarming problem.

"I feel this sense of hopelessness when I cross the border now," she said. "DHS is losing people right and left, and on top of that, whichever administration is elected next has no experience working with DHS."

The border alliance is hoping the efforts of two professors will help get their message to congress. Erin Ward of New Mexico State University and Parr Rosson of Texas A&M University are seeking funding for a project that would track the economic cost of border phenomena like trade restrictions, long-wait lines and the resulting loss of agricultural labor available in places like the Rio Grande River Valley.

"Through this system, we will be able to report the direct economic impact trade restrictions have on the constituents that these policy makers represent," Rosson said. "Maybe they'll listen to that."

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