At Tijuana checkpoint, border crossers wait . . . and wait . . . and wait

DAN KEANE

Published: 07.23.2008

TIJUANA, Mexico - It looks like any Southern California traffic jam - except you can buy a cappuccino and a 4-foot statue of Jesus from your car while watching dogs sniff vehicles for drugs.

This is the U.S.-Mexico border's most congested crossing, where local residents say already epic lines into San Diego have grown even longer since January, when the U.S. began phasing out a long-standing practice of allowing people they believed to be American citizens to enter by simply stating their citizenship.

Border guards now require most crossers to present a U.S. passport or other proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate — though they are still permitted to exercise their own judgment in order to keep lines moving. As always, Mexican citizens and other foreign nationals must show valid immigration documents to enter.

Still longer waits may be coming for people trying to get to jobs, homes, in-laws and weekend hangouts are scattered across both halves of the border's largest metropolis.

As of next June, all U.S. citizens will have to present a passport or security-enhanced card, much like an electronic toll tag, to cross - or risk being waved out of line for a rigorous security check.

More than half the 21 million cars crossing from Tijuana each year wait 90 minutes or more, with a fourth stuck for more than two hours, according to survey data collected before the January rule change and published this month by Tijuana's College of the Northern Frontier.