MEXICO-BOUND TRAFFIC MAY FACE CUSTOMS CHECKS

Travelers headed into Mexico could soon face border-crossing delays
similar to those endured by northbound travelers.

Cartel violence persists in Mexico, and U.S. officials are looking
for ways to slow the southbound flow of illicit drug profits and
weapons that fuel the bloodshed.

One way to do that is to require customs inspections of all outbound traffic.

Customs and Border Protection officials seized about $41 million in
illegal cash between March 2009 and June 2010, but as much as $39
billion is smuggled annually, according to a National Drug
Intelligence Center estimate.

Millions of dollars are being spent to improve Customs' Outbound
Enforcement Program, and it will cost billions of dollars to make
necessary changes on all land crossings, officials said. Concerns
exist, however, that additional delays will further depress
international commerce and tourism.

"We all understand that we have to do these outbound inspections," El
Paso Mayor John Cook said Friday.

"But when these bridges were built, it was with the idea that
northbound inspections would be done on our side and southbound
inspections would be done on their side. It's very difficult to
configure the inspection lanes for something that the physical
location was not meant to do."

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, has been pushing a bill that
would entirely redesign the nation's ports of entry on the Canadian
and Mexican borders.

The project would cost an estimated $1 billion a year over five years, he said.

"Current ports of entry that we're using today were designed some 30
to 40 to 50 years ago," Reyes said in a telephone interview.

"We have got many different challenges now. The design is outdated."

The new ports would be more efficient and safer for traffic in both
directions, Reyes said. Although the bill has bipartisan support, he
said, money has not been appropriated.

Customs received $10 million in the fiscal 2009 War Supplemental
Appropriations Act to improve outbound lanes along the Southwest
border, said agency spokesman Roger Maier. The Ysleta and Stanton
bridges in the El Paso area will be upgraded, he said.

Among the projects planned are protective canopies, improved lighting
for night operations, concrete traffic barriers and speed bumps

An additional $23 million from previous Southwest border initiatives
is being used to design and install license-plate reading technology
at all 110 outbound lanes on the Southwest border, Maier said.

Crossings at Anzalduas, Pharr and Hidalgo -- in the Rio Grande Valley
- -- will be the first to be equipped with fixed readers, he said.

The rest, including all the El Paso area crossings, are receiving
mobile readers as a temporary solution, he said. Customs officials
are also looking for land next to the southbound lanes for more
construction, according to a recent Government Accountability Office
report. Determining the costs of crossing delays is difficult, the report says.

"Longer wait times at the border represent an increase in the cost of
travel, which may lead people to make fewer trips," the report says.
"Such delays can result in additional expenses for industry and
consumers stemming from increased carrier costs, inventory costs,
labor costs, problems with inventory and resulting reduction in trade
and output."

Diverting commercial vehicle inspections to areas off-site and using
high-tech pre-inspection programs would relieve some of the
congestion, Cook said.

Reyes said his bill would add more customs officials, which also
would speed the traffic flow.