Automated port at Boquillas to open soon

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin flies over the international crossing at Boquillas in Big Bend National Park on a 2010 visit. The border crossing in the remote area soon will be automated. less Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin flies over the international crossing at Boquillas in Big Bend National Park on a 2010 visit. The border crossing in the remote area soon will be ... more Photo: JERRY LARA, SAEN Staff Photo: JERRY LARA, SAEN Staff Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Automated port at Boquillas to open soon 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON - Even as they wrestle with furloughs and other fiscal belt-tightening, U.S. agencies are quietly preparing to open a new automated border port of entry along the banks of the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park.

The new port across the river from Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico, will re-establish an unofficial crossing used for decades by local residents and closed by the U.S. government after the Sept. 11 , 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It was almost like losing part of your family, because you knew those people and they knew you," said Ron Sanders, 68, an Alpine resident and employee of the national park concessionaire Forever Resorts.

U.S. officials with the National Park Service and Customs and Border Protection say the structure is completed and equipment in place to begin processing "foot traffic" at the new border port, accessible by boat. The opening is expected within the next few weeks.

"We are just waiting for an opening date," said David Elkowitz, NPS chief of interpretation and park services.

The Boquillas crossing has the support of presidential administrations in both the United States and Mexico. Both countries have issued official notices about the opening.

The move comes as Congress continues to grapple with sequestration, across-the-board cuts in federal spending expected to impact border, law enforcement and other agencies.

Also, Democrats and Republicans have agreed that tightened border security will be a milestone in comprehensive immigration reform proposals that could include a path to citizenship.

Border and parks officials say they do not expect the opening of the Boquillas crossing to fall victim to U.S. budget cuts or furloughs.

"I don't know of anything that would delay us," said Bill Brooks, a CBP spokesman in Marfa.

Elkowitz said "sequestration will certainly impact the park, but the crossing is a priority."

'Real good thing' for all

The new border port is sought by residents of the Big Bend region, some of whom have family on both sides of the Rio Grande, said Rep Pete Gallego, D-Alpine.

Gallego said that as a kid he paid a quarter to cross the river at Boquillas in a rowboat. The reopening would join families and improve the business climate on both sides of the border.

"Restoring that local economy could be a real good thing for everybody," Gallego said.

Sanders said he began crossing the river at Boquillas in 1963, visiting with people in the small Mexican town and eating at a restaurant there.

He said Mexicans came over to a small store in the national park to buy groceries: "fresh meats, produce and bread."

The new crossing will be a huge convenience for locals, and provide tourists to the national park with a chance to enjoy restaurants and protected natural areas in Mexico.

"I want it open," said Sanders, still working for the concessionaire who runs the small store on the U.S. side of the river. "It's not going to make us rich, but it's a little more business."

Infrastructure issues

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the delay in opening the crossing has been the lack of infrastructure on the Mexican side of the river.

Cornyn said that even though the U.S. border port of entry would be automated, without dedicated immigration personnel assigned, it would be located in a facility where NPS and other federal employees are present.

The Boquillas crossing will give U.S. and Mexican tourists access to federally protected areas on both sides of the river, including Big Bend park in the United States and Maderas de Carmen and Canon de Santa Elena in Mexico.

It also will become the only border port-of-entry between Presidio and Del Rio, a span of nearly 290 miles by paved road.

There is no bridge at the Boquillas crossing.

Residents and tourists on both sides of the river had regularly crossed at Boquillas, often in a rowboat with "Victor," a Mexican national who made a living ferrying people over the Rio Grande, or by wading the gentle waters.

The cultural crossing, however, was closed in May 2002 when the U.S. government tightened security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A decision to "reopen" the crossing with an automated port-of-entry, inside a NPS visitor center, came after consultation with Mexican counterparts and extensive analysis, according to CBP officials.

"This is unique. We've opened other ports, but this is unique in that it is automated," Brooks said.

"There is no bridge and there is no commercial traffic through the port," Brooks said.

Smuggling is low

In 2011 the NPS announced that the Boquillas crossing would reopen in April 2012, but that date slipped during presidential elections in both the United States and Mexico.

People using the automated kiosks will be required to have a passport or other documents accepted for entry under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

The NPS visitor center with the automated kiosks will only be staffed from Wednesday through Sunday, limiting crossings to just those days.

And even though the Big Bend region has a colorful history of smuggling, Elkowitz said current apprehensions in the area "are the lowest for the entire 2,000-mile border."

"There is still smuggling in the area," he said, but not like decades ago. And the number of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has increased substantially since 2011.

"There's a lot of law enforcement down there now," he said.