Land port of entry to open at San Luis

SHERYL KORNMAN

Tucson Citizen

The federal government is opening its first new land port of entry in more than a decade Friday in San Luis, south of Yuma on the Arizona-Mexico border.

The new port, called San Luis II, will be dedicated to commercial traffic.

San Luis I, the original port, will handle private vehicle traffic and pedestrians.

The area is a major agricultural hub.

In 2007, there were 7.8 million border crossings through the San Luis land port of entry, according to Chief Customs and Border Patrol Officer Brian Levin.

A 2000 environmental assessment study prepared for the General Services Administration on commercial port of entry project said each vehicle at the port was delayed in 1998 an average of 1.8 hours.

It projected truck traffic would increase in the next few years from 180 northbound trucks a day to 600 trucks a day, carrying agricultural commodities and products assembled in Mexico by maquiladoras