Drugs, Not Shorter Lines, Focus of Added Border Crew

The U.S. Customs Service is bolstering its inspection staff in San Diego, but motorists entering the United States from Mexico can expect more of the same: frustrating, nerve-fraying delays at border inspection stations.

The manpower increases had been in the works for some time, but the moves became widely known this week after U.S. Customs Commissioner William von Raab met with San Diego businessmen distressed about the delays.

Despite Von Raab’s appearance, however, Allan J. Rappoport, district director for the U.S. Customs Service, said Friday that the additional manpower will not alleviate the delays of an hour or more that historically have plagued the border crossings at San Ysidro and Otay Mesa. Instead, Rappoport said, the 40 additional inspectors, who will be joining the staff gradually during the next three months, will be used to step up interdiction efforts aimed at choking off an “alarming” increase in illicit drugs entering the United States from Mexico.

“The public should not be misled to think that the 40 positions are now going to result in a big change in the traffic,” said Rappoport, who noted that Von Raab had stressed the priority of drug-interdiction efforts.

Business leaders on both sides of the border said that’s bad news.

“We’re disappointed,” said Paul Clark, president of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce.

In an effort to speed up the border-crossing process, the chamber and other business groups have embarked on a letter-writing campaign to federal officials in Washington. “We think a wait of more than 15 minutes is unreasonable,” said Clark.

In U.S.-Mexico border areas, many merchants depend on the trade of shoppers, businessmen and tourists who routinely cross the international boundary. Merchants say a free flow of commerce is vital to the economy of border towns such as San Ysidro, where Mexican shoppers form the backbone of the economy.

In recent years, businessmen have complained bitterly about the delays, which they say deter potential customers from crossing the border. Critics say that the backups have exacerbated the plight of a depressed region already hard-hit by the plunging value of the Mexican peso.

Particularly maddening, business leaders say, is the fact that traffic could be expedited considerably by simply opening more lanes at the inspection stations. At 3:30 Friday afternoon, for instance, only 12 of the 24 northbound lanes entering the United States at San Ysidro were open to traffic; delays approached an hour.

Customs officials have said they don’t have the manpower to staff the booths at the head of the closed lanes. And, Rappoport said Friday, rather than assigning the 40 new personnel to the vacant inspection booths, they will instead be posted at the so-called “secondary” inspection areas, where suspicious vehicles and persons are examined more thoroughly for contraband.

“Our No. 1 job is narcotics enforcement,” Rappoport said.

Since Oct. 1, Rappoport noted, agents at the two ports of entry here have confiscated 300 pounds of cocaine--compared to about 100 pounds discovered in all of fiscal 1985. Heroin seizures are up by 50%, he said, as are seizures of currency, much of which is believed to be drug-related.

“We all support (stopping) drugs coming into this country,” Clark said. But, he added, “Our priority is to have a smooth flow of commerce coming into the United States, and as many gates open as possible to accomplish that.”