Arizona Ports Of Entry Battle Infrastructure And Staffing Challenges
PHOENIX – From a farm or a maquila in Sonora, Mexico to a supermarket store in Chicago, the journey of products coming from Mexico is a long, sometimes slow one. But according to border experts and officials, it’s during customs inspections at the border where the process gets delayed the most because ports of entry are understaffed and their need for investment is often overlooked.
According to a 2016 Customs and Border Protection report to Congress, CBP has 2,107 unfilled officer’s positions, despite an increase of more than 30 percent of trucks with goods crossing from Mexico over the last decade, according to date from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
In Arizona, the Tucson sector has over 20 percent of unfilled positions, according to a letter the Arizona Border Counties Coalition sent to the state’s Congressional Delegation in August.
