Arizona
Longer wait times at the border is losing the U.S. money
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In 2014 alone the U.S. and Mexico totaled over $534 billion in bilateral commerce, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With well over $1 billion traveling across our southern border every day, 70 percent of that crosses via trucks, which means longer wait times at ports of entry is directly impacting our economy. It is estimated that the U.S. economy loses $116 million for every minute of delay at the five busiest ports of entry on the southern border. In 2008, that added up to a loss of $6 billion and 26,000 jobs according to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. A report examining the state of the border by Erik Lee and Christopher Wilson breaks it down like this: the infrastructure and capacity of ports of entry on the U.S. Mexico border has not kept up with the expansion and steady growth of trade on both sides.
