(The following story by Louie Gilot appeared on the El Paso Times website on December 21.)
EL PASO, Texas — On the wrong side of the Juárez mountain, seldom visited except by a few cattle exporters, the Santa Teresa port of entry used to be a nonentity.
New Mexicans worked hard to change that, and in October, the crossing saw more commercial truck traffic than ever in its 15-year history.
Citing statistics from Customs and Border Protection, officials of the New Mexico Border Authority said 4,149 trucks crossed at Santa Teresa in October, a 32 percent increase over October 2006.
Jerry Pacheco, executive director for the New Mexico International Business Accelerator, said increased truck crossings is a key to the area’s economic development.
“Development around the port of entry is tied to the volume of traffic at the port of entry. A lot of companies will eventually decide, instead of going into the interior (of the United States), to move close to the crossing. There will be more gas stations for trucks and more attention by federal officials,” Pacheco said.
New Mexico authorities credit extended hours of operation for the growth. After much lobbying, U.S. and Mexican customs agencies agreed to change the closing time at Santa Teresa from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The extended hours began in September.
Pacheco acknowledges that there is little traffic at the port after 6 p.m. But there is a crowd between 3 and 6 p.m.
“These are people who would not have taken the chance before,” Pacheco said.
Manufacturers did not want to risk getting to the port late and finding it closed, Pacheco said.
But the gains are fragile.
For one thing, the extended hours are a six-month pilot program, which will end in February. New Mexico officials want the change to be permanent, but it is not known whether CBP will decide the change is cost-effective.
“CBP, along with Mexico and the New Mexico Border Authority will study traffic numbers at the conclusion of the period of expanded service. It would probably be premature to provide any analysis while the pilot is in progress,” CBP spokesman Roger Maier said. “The Santa Teresa port of entry has experienced steady and regular growth in truck traffic over the last few years, and 2007 is no exception. We will probably end 2007 at just under 40,000 trucks for the year.”
Last year, nearly 37,000 trucks crossed the border at Santa Teresa, still far from the more than 773,000 trucks combined at El Paso’s Bridge of the Americas and Zaragoza Bridge.
Recently, the Santa Teresa crossing might also have benefited from traffic fleeing the long lines at the El Paso bridges, but elected officials have now vowed to reduce those lines.
On the bright side, many South Juárez manufacturing plants including Electrolux and VienTek, have chosen to send their trucks to Santa Teresa rather than brave the cross-town traffic in Juárez.
“With the increase of the industrial base in South Juárez and as far down as the state of Durango, we see Santa Teresa becoming more and more important as a border crossing for commercial traffic in the entire region,” said Oscar Kuri, director general of the Business Coalition for Free Trade, a Juárez-based trade and security organization.
Companies that have been crossing at Santa Teresa for years say business is growing.
“Santa Teresa offers an alternative to the already congested bridges in El Paso. Those of us who are willing to trade off the mileage against the long waits find it very convenient,” said Miriam Baca, owner of Omega Trucking Inc.
The company, founded in 1998 with offices in Sunland Park and a 9-acre lot at 7001 BiNational Road in Santa Teresa, and Autotransportes Chamizal in Juárez, owned by Baca’s brother Oscar Baca, are among the major crossers at Santa Teresa.
Landowners such as Verde Realty, which owns buildings in an industrial park and plans to develop a residential community on about 21,000 acres in Santa Teresa, also see potential.
“There certainly is an increase in interest” in the region, said Verde Vice President Claude Billings.
There is more good news on the horizon from Union Pacific Corp.
Late last year, the railroad announced a plan to build a $150 million railroad facility in Santa Teresa by 2015, which would create 285 jobs and be a catalyst to other development in the immediate area.
South of the border, a plan to build railroad tracks from South Juárez to the Santa Teresa port of entry was placed on the Mexican national infrastructure budget. The plan, which calls for a 63-kilometer rail bypass, would cost $1.2 billion pesos, or about $110 million, but so far no money has been dedicated to the project.