“We need to make the border the center, not the end — but the biggest problem we have is not security, it is openness and communication,” Mr. Filner said in an interview in his City Hall office. “People have to understand that the infrastructure that we need should be an important part of any discussion on immigration. The volume here is so incredible, yet nobody understands how much this matters. People can’t go back and forth, and we’re losing out.”

Border security has been at the center of the debate on an immigration overhaul in Washington, with many lawmakers pushing for more security and fences at the border. The bipartisan group of eight senators who proposed sweeping changes have pointed to San Diego as the example of a secure border. But here, where a multimillion-dollar secondary fence was added a few years ago, many worry about the enormous economic cost of improving security that they feel is already too tight, not too loose.

Mr. Filner and his supporters cite delays at the border crossings that frequently stretch to more than three hours as the prime example of the problems the region faces. They say that more crossing lanes and agents are needed to allow people to cross quickly, and that technology could allow inspections to be completed in seconds rather than minutes. A study by the San Diego Association of Governments estimated that the region loses more than $2 billion annually because of the waits.

“The political buzz made it so that there is a self-evident truth that the border was out of control, and that national stigma remains,” said Paul Ganster, the director of the Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias at San Diego State University. “It might make people from Iowa feel better knowing that it takes hours to cross the border, but a better approach is to fix the border so it functions for legitimate purposes. Right now we’re just penalizing ourselves with huge inefficiencies.”