TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Friday its plans to temporarily suspend operations at the Lukeville Port of Entry, beginning Monday, Dec. 4.
The announcement follows a recent port-of-entry closure in Texas and comes at a time when migrant encounters are numbering at almost 3,000 per day on some days, with multi-day wait times at ports of entry like the one in Lukeville.
In a statement on Friday, CPB says the closure is intended to re-direct personnel to assist the Border Patrol agents taking people into custody. Those entering and exiting the country—both for those on foot and traveling by vehicle—will need to pass through the ports and Nogales or San Luis.
Chairman of the Nogales Santa Cruz Port Authority Jaime Chamberlain says he knows closing Lukeville will divert traffic to the Nogales ports, leading to longer lines there.
Chamberlain says that will aggravate backups in Nogales, where many customs officers have already been diverted away from inspections to help process asylum seekers.
“Our community does not understand how the federal government can think that processing migrants takes precedence over the $688 billion worth of economic business we do between Mexico and the United States.”
RELATED: Rep. Raúl Grijalva calls for more border resources, wants faster migrant processing
Chamberlain says besides the impact on commercial cargoes like fruit and vegetables, the holidays are an especially bad time to jam up traffic at the ports because it discourages Mexican shoppers from coming to the U.S. for holiday shopping.
He says Customs has told him it will try to open as many lanes as possible Saturday and Sunday before the Lukeville port closes.
He says the Federal government should take steps to discourage asylum-seekers and set immigration judges right at the border to rule on immigration cases as soon as people enter.
Its a similar sentiment shared by District 7 Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose district covers a majority of Arizona's shared border with Mexico.
"And Congress is the only one that can reform the immigration law and provide a supplemental so that we have the resources not to make this crisis any worse, or to make the chaos any worse," Grijalva said.
In its official statement Friday, CPB says it will continue to adjust operational plans to process migrants, and encourages those traveling between Mexico and the U.S. to check port of entry wait times on its website.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.