Posted on 03/11/2008 9:13:39 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The number of people crossing into the United States at San Ysidro has fallen 21.4 percent from a peak three years ago, a precipitous drop that economists and others attribute to frustrating border waits, dwindling tourism and a struggling U.S. economy.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 10.3 million fewer people crossed at the San Ysidro point of entry, the busiest gateway in the country, than did so in 2004. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics also indicate that for all crossings between California and Mexico, the average drop-off was 14.2 percent, or 13 million people.
The Otay Mesa port of entry, where traffic peaked in 2005, has since experienced a drop of 24.3 percent in northbound crossers.
The recently released numbers quantify an economic pinch the San Diego-Tijuana border region has been feeling as the cross-border flow of commuters and travelers has slowed.
“There is nobody spending any money,” said Tom Shultz, the owner of a Subway franchise near the San Ysidro port of entry. Shultz said the overwhelming majority of his customers are from Tijuana, and most are daily commuters. “I see a drop in traffic, and I see more cautiousness in spending.”
Neighboring businesses, a mix of mom-and-pop retail and quick-service shops, are having similar problems: reduced traffic, lower sales, reductions in employee hours.
“Between the border wait time and security issues, it is killing us,” said Jason Wells, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce in San Ysidro, where an estimated 85 percent of the retail customer base consists of shoppers who cross from Mexico. “We've lost the casual crosser, the casual shopper, the casual tourist. The only crossers we have left are forced crossers, people that because of family or work have to cross.”
In fiscal 2004, 48.2 million people drove or walked into the United States through the San Ysidro port of entry. They included Mexican commuters and shoppers, U.S. citizens and legal residents who live in Tijuana, and returning American tourists.
On the U.S. side, merchants in San Ysidro and farther north were enjoying healthy sales from Mexican shoppers. On the Mexican side, merchants in Tijuana and farther south were welcoming a steady stream of tourists.
Sectors of the local economy – service, retail, construction and others – were attracting a regular flow of commuters from the Tijuana area, some of the same people who came back on weekends to shop. Just north of the border crossing, agencies selling Mexican auto insurance had southbound drivers idling several cars deep in their drive-through lanes.
Today, these same businesses on both sides of the border are hurting.
“There are three things here,” said Marney Cox, chief economist for the San Diego Association of Governments. “Wait times have continued to grow, crime is deterring (tourism), and there are the job conditions.”
In the San Diego-Tijuana region, the U.S. economic slump has affected not only workers who live in the United States, but those who commute from Mexico, especially those employed in the county's hard-hit construction industry and other building trades. While the unemployment rate for San Diego County remains relatively low compared with the rest of the state, this is partly because those who don't live in the county aren't counted, Cox said.
“The unemployed people are actually living in Riverside and south of border,” he said. “That is why we are seeing such a muffled impact on our unemployment here.”
With less work for commuters during the week, there is less money being spent on weekends.
“It's a double-whammy that way,” Cox said. “The commuters are not making money, then they're not shopping.”
Thomas Currie, the owner of a San Ysidro money-exchange office a block north of the border, said he has seen a 20 percent drop in business since the start of the year as fewer workers from Tijuana come in to cash paychecks and fewer cross-border shoppers exchange pesos for dollars.
While the economy plays a part, “one of the biggest things hurting us is the border wait times,” Currie said. The delay can last more than two hours. “A lot of people say it's not worth it, I don't care what the price is.”
For Baja California residents who are shopping, there are additional incentives to stay put. A retail boom has prompted the expansion of chains such as Costco, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Office Depot in the Tijuana-Rosarito Beach area, providing consumers with a wide variety of goods and no border traffic.
“They may still be crossing, but they may only be crossing once a week now,” said Kenn Morris, president of the Crossborder Group, a market research firm. “What people are doing is choosing their purchases, and their decision to cross the border, much more judiciously.”
Of the 37.9 million people who entered through San Ysidro in fiscal 2007, more than 20 million were foreign citizens, mostly from Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
About 17 million were U.S. citizens. Not all these were tourists – regular commuters include U.S. citizens living in Mexico – but a steep drop in tourist traffic has had a crushing effect on tourist-dependent businesses in Baja.
At La Diferencia, a Tijuana fine-dining restaurant, owner Juan Carlos Rodriguez said he noticed “los Americanos” – once a third of his clientele – coming in fewer numbers about two years ago, put off by increasingly long waits they faced returning north.
Then came the spike in drug-related violence and, more recently, additional documentation required for U.S. citizens. Today, Rodriguez hardly sees any U.S. diners, not even the business commuters who used to stop in after work.
“I think that every niche of the economy in Tijuana is affected by this situation,” Rodriguez said.
The decline in southbound tourism is felt in San Ysidro, where agencies selling Mexican auto insurance have lost short-term policy buyers. Where tourists once began lining up on Friday afternoons at Baja For Less Mexican Insurance Services, a typical weekend day now brings as few as four drive-through customers, owner Fred Knechel said.
“Now it almost seems like it's a weekday,” he said. “It's nothing like it used to be.”
Cox of SANDAG said the long wait times may eventually be eased as more U.S. citizens obtain passports, which will be required of those returning from Mexico as early as June 2009. Birth or naturalization certificates have been required in lieu of passports since the end of January.
Some merchants on both sides are placing hope in the planned expansion of the San Ysidro port of entry from 24 lanes to at least 31 lanes. The first phase of construction is set to begin this summer, but completion is not expected until 2014.
Wells of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce said he hopes construction won't lead to longer waits, but that he is willing to accept whatever improves the status quo.
“The crossings have gotten so bad,” he said, “you can't do more damage.”
I WANT TO PUKE, SO NOW IT WILL BE BORDER ENFORCEMENT IS COLLAPSING THE ECONOMY.
“Dwindling tourism” is a real stretch.
Quick build the fence while traffic is down.
Best news I've heard in a while
Holey moley. I've been wrong all these years. The people of Mexico have been spending money here.
[slaps hand to forehead] I coulda had a V-8
LOL - Maybe he should say that Emergency Room visits, food stamp applications, Illegal crime and a host of other ignored costs are down. Besides, most of the money made by Illegals goes South in a hurry.
I'd also advise him to check out the Real Estate Market, employment statistics, etc. as perhaps a reason why 'Nobody is spending money'.
Not much mention of the security issue. With daily shoot outs between Army, Police and drug lords, and kidnappings for ransom..people just don’t want to go.
American’s living and working in TJ are hiring guards..big business’s are facing big expenses for security.
It is an ugly picture that the MSM doesn’t want to report in detail.
My friends living there say..don’t visit.
Only 79.2 million to go (in california)
I think we need to revise that 20 million illegal alien number.
What a pile of lies this article is, an absolute pile of lies. So now impoverished illegal aliens are spending vacations at all inclusive California resorts? Cmon already. Thats a bold faced lie.
To hell with tourism! That’s the least of our worries!
I’m simply observing that, with the dollar at its present level, if you aren’t overrun with tourists you really live somewhere out in the boonies.
This is not about illegals; many Mexicans come up to the Tucson malls to SHOP; then go back home.
Oh for HEAVEN’S SAKES! Have they seen the price of gas lately? Or perhaps checked out the housing market? The illegals have nothing to DO with it!
You used to be able to get some really good deals on name brand merchandise in Tijuana. It’s amazing how much US import duty adds to the price of imported goods. For example, I bought a nice Rolex watch in TJ for $45. It would have cost about $7000 in the US.
Reduced tourism...since so many of them live here already at this point.
Backazzward analysis.
Illegals aren’t causing a slowing economy. Illegals aren’t coming at as fast a rate due to the slowing economy.
Duh.
Author Leslie Nielsen? How’d you get Nielsen out of Berestein?
HaHa; and you think you got a genuine Rolex? I bought a beautiful red “Prada” handbag in Rocky Point. The leather was soft, but in a couple of months the thing was falling apart. The workmanship was shoddy.
And I didn’t even care about the brand; I just liked the way the handbag looked. :(
I wonder if Mexican kids are still crossing to go to school here in the U.S.?
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=314146
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Calif. School Targets Mexican Students
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Children are more likely to shield their faces than to smile when Daniel Santillan points his camera.
Santillan’s photos aren’t for any picture album or yearbook _ they help prove that Mexican youngsters are illegally attending public schools in this California border community.
With too many students and too few classrooms, Calexico school officials took the unusual step of hiring someone to photograph children and document the offenders. Santillan snaps pictures at the city’s downtown border crossing and shares the images with school principals, who use them as evidence to kick out those living in Mexico.
Since he started the job two years ago, the number of students in the Calexico school system has fallen 5 percent, from 9,600 to 9,100, while the city’s population grew about 3 percent.
“The community asked us to do this, and we responded,” school board President Enrique Alvarado said. “Once it starts to affect you personally, when your daughter gets bumped to another school, then our residents start complaining.”
Every day along the 1,952-mile border, children from Mexico cross into the United States and attend public schools. No one keeps statistics on how many...
should have picked one up for me...I hate paying that $6,055. extra for a good watch
Cry me a river!
“I bought a nice Rolex watch in TJ for $45”
I bought `Two Stuffed Iguanas Boxing’ in TJ. Better half
consigned it to my barn/den with all my other cool stuff.
I wonder if the Tijuana Home Depot has a bunch of Americans standing around outside looking for work?
BTTT
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