PHARR — Luis Bazan looks at his port of entry nestled up against the Mexican city of Reynosa and sees a maze of 18-wheelers mostly stuck, waiting and waiting before creeping along the highway that links north and south at a snail’s pace.

Many are filled with perishable produce. Where he once saw opportunity, Bazan now sees trouble.

Luis Bazan is director of the Pharr International Bridge in Pharr. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

Pharr, a small city of about 80,000 people, usually thrives on its border crossing, where fresh Mexican produce, such as peppers, mangos and avocados, are bound for the north, including Dallas grocery stores. The crossing handles more produce than anywhere else along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But that record trade has come to a slow crawl, hit hard by the loss of at least 60 customs workers who have been diverted to other duties by the Trump administration.

“What are we doing?” said Bazan, 44, the port director of the privately owned international bridge. “At the end of the day, if we don’t have enough CBP agents, we’re screwed. Opportunity is staring right at us and we’re focused on slowing down, not increasing, trade. Again, what exactly are we doing?”

1 / 2The Pharr International Bridge on Wednesday, April 30, 2019, in Pharr.(Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer) 2 / 2The Pharr International Bridge(Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

Bazan is referring to the reassignment of more than 730 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from international bridges to help deal with the flow of mostly Central American migrants.

The Trump administration says it’s a crisis: More than 100,000 migrants crossed the border in April, with many voluntarily turning themselves in to authorities to seek asylum. It was the biggest monthly apprehension total since 2007.

Bazan and other business leaders and economists say the reassignment of customs workers and the slowdowns when crossing the border are taking their toll on business. One study says wait times at international crossings are almost a third longer and billions of dollars in trade are at stake.

Among those reassigned to handle the heavy flow of migrants are the CBP officers who assist Border Patrol agents in processing migrants, even changing diapers and making sandwiches. Some fetch food from supermarkets. Some quietly confess they even donate clothes and toys from their own families.

Four minors, three of them young children, have died in U.S custody.

And, since October, an estimated 4,300 active duty and National Guard soldiers have been erecting border barriers, putting concertina wire across fences, providing transportation and doing other duties to support the Border Patrol. The troops are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties.

Additionally, last week, the Transportation Security Administration announced plans to send hundreds of workers to the southern border to reinforce staffing, just as the hectic summer travel season begins.

The latest move only bolstered criticism from skeptical business leaders along the border, including Bazan and Gerald Schwebel, executive vice president of IBC Bank in Laredo.

“Today it’s TSA resources. Who’s next?” Schwebel said. “If you come to the border, you will find personnel from so many different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Who’s in charge? ... Some want a wall. Some want more people. Some want more equipment. ... Stop talking about the border as if we were a different planet from a different galaxy.”

Schwebel urged Washington and Austin to provide “real solutions,” such as addressing the need for more immigration judges, not more troops, to handle the growing backlog of asylum seekers. Stop looking at the border as just “photo ops” to generate fear, he said.

In a recent visit to McAllen, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the Pentagon is committed to keeping the troops on the border at least through September, but he insisted their mission “will not be indefinite.”

The Pentagon is also transferring at least $1.5 billion from defense projects, including $604 million originally intended for use in support of security forces in Afghanistan, to help finance construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall. That’s in addition to $1.37 billion authorized by Congress.

Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection agents and other federal resources are being used to patrol some of the already safest communities across the country — the U.S. border cities.

Every week, Bazan sits on a conference call with CBP agents to coordinate activities, a reflection of the close ties he has with federal agencies that control the border. But lately, he said, “I don’t think they even know what’s going on. The orders are coming from Washington. This is not panning out for them, or for us. There’s frustration all around. I ask them, what do we have to do to get you back? They just shrug their shoulders. It’s out of their hands.”

At his office recently, a group of CBP agents came to visit, shoot the bull. But when Bazan told them a reporter wanted to talk to them, all made a beeline for the door.

A CBP spokesman would only say, "Facilitation of legitimate trade and travel remains a priority for CBP at its 328 ports of entry nationwide. While the current Southwest border security and humanitarian crisis is impacting CBP operations, we are working to mitigate the effects as much as possible. ... Travelers are urged to plan accordingly and check the CBP wait times page for the most up-to-date border crossing information."

The reassignment of agents has created uncertainty and has impacted not just the region, but the whole country economically.

A study by the Waco-based Perryman Group calculated that wait times at the border are about 30% longer. Projections show the wait times could cost Texas, which shares about half of the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, more than $32 billion in gross domestic product in just over three months. More than 292,000 jobs are also at stake, according to the study.

At a national level, the study predicts about $69 billion in gross domestic product at risk, with utilities, manufacturing, transportation, wholesale trade and produce taking the biggest hits.

Billions at stake as Trump’s diversion of border resources puts the squeeze on business

Consumers are already seeing a hike in produce prices at grocery stores, said Ray Perryman, president and CEO of the Perryman Group.

“The message is that the border may seem a long way from you if you’re in Ohio, Michigan or even Dallas, but it affects everyone in a fundamental way — your wallet,” Perryman said. “Our economies are so integrated. The message is we need to put the resources at the border. We need to enhance border processing capability and focus on how to make trade more efficient, more competitive. We should be figuring out a way to process goods and people back and forth, not be focused on building walls.”

Tony Garza is the former U.S ambassador to Mexico and a native of this region. He too criticizes the long waits, as well the president’s tariffs, including the now ending steel tariffs and a new 17% tax on tomatoes. But he sees a silver lining.

“Probably what’s most impressive is how resilient our two countries are, that in spite of the background noise and serial bad policy we’re seeing, we just keep putting one foot in front of the other,” he said.

Perhaps, but the debate over migration and building walls doesn’t help the border, particularly in Pharr, Bazan said. “The timing couldn’t be worse,” he said.

Increased trade with Mexico in recent years is a tribute not just to the work of Pharr, which also ranks among the top five ports for importing automotive parts, but to Mexico.

Over the last decade, Mexico has been building a superhighway that connects the country’s Pacific Coast to the Gulf Coast and shaves the drive time by about eight hours one way. Ironically, Bazan says, it was U.S. administrations from Reagan to Obama that pushed for Mexico to open up its economy, only to have the Trump administration push back with what he calls anti-free trade policies.

The new infrastructure has over the last three years helped Pharr surpass Nogales, Ariz., as the No. 1 trading port for Mexican produce, which has big ramifications for North Texas.

More than $35 billion in overall trade crossed the border last year in Pharr alone, Bazan said.

“If there is a heartbeat to the economy, one of most powerful veins runs through Dallas,” said Luisa del Rosal, executive director of the SMU Mission Foods Texas Mexico Center. ”The more trade that comes through the border, the bigger the economic impact for our region.”

1 / 3Central American asylum seekers turn themselves in to Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States on Friday, May 3, 2019, near McAllen. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer) 2 / 3 (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer) 3 / 3Central American asylum seekers walk up a road after crossing the Rio Grande on Friday, May 3, 2019, near McAllen. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

Inside his truck for a quick tour of the border port area, Bazan points to warehouses under construction, along with a border safety inspection facility that will be operated by the state, plus new roadways and loops to get the products more quickly onto highways to connect to Dallas and Houston.

He explains a pilot program in which the bridge is closed to northbound car traffic from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to relieve congestion and make room for cargo, a move that has helped ease the flow of commercial traffic.

He pauses and, with a solemn, worried face, he stresses: “This will all lie empty if we don’t have agents. If we don’t have the personnel, we’re spinning our wheels. Everything will just sit there, until our political leaders on Capitol Hill, the White House in Washington and at the Texas Capitol of Austin wake up and see more than just a political football game. ... This is about keeping our economy healthy.”