Advocates say that lack of funding for CBP keeps delaying the Otay Mesa II Port of Entry project

SEATTLE - Lately, California has been on the news a lot for being at the forefront of some of the most progressive bills related to undocumented immigrants in the state. From a proposal to facilitate their employment at public universities to another one that would offer them the chance to access phone discounts, Democrats have been pushing for more benefits for the demographic.

Republicans, on the other hand, have been everything in their power to reject or even delay many of these initiatives. Just a few days ago they pressured governor Newsom to veto a bill aimed at helping undocumented immigrants buy homes in California, while the same kind of pressure can be expected for a recently announced project aimed at providing them with unemployment benefits.

Legal immigration, has also been a hot topic in the state, as the Smart Border Coalition reported that close to 18 million people, on foot and in cars, legally crossed the border through the state's seven Cali-Baja region ports of entry during the second quarter of 2024, an increase of 3.3% compared to this year's first quarter.

However, California's plan of adding one more port of entry to its already extensive list of locations will have to wait a little longer, as the proposed Otay Mesa II Port of Entry sees another delay due to lack of funding.

The innovative project is supposed to provide fast and predictable crossings via tolled approach roads that connect directly to the new facility, with an average waiting time of 20 minutes. It would serve commercial trucks as well as passenger cars.

Although construction of the four-lane freeway between SR 905 and Enrico Fermi Drive is now completed, the project is yet to finalize segments two and three of the proposed plan.

Advocates for the proposed port of entry say that until a budget is finalized and money is allocated for U.S. Customs and Border Protections officers to work at the crossing, construction of the remaining phases cannot resume.

The Otay Mesa II Port of Entry was slated to open at the end of September, but money and design issues have prevented the start of construction on the U.S. side of the border. Joaquín Luken, executive director of the Smart Border Coalition, fears the funding issue could further delay the opening — which has already been delayed two years — and is now not projected to open until 2027.

California's ports of entry see a high traffic every year. According to the data, the state averaged over 200,000 daily crossings in the entire Cali-Baja region, with San Diego County alone being responsible for almost 150,000 of legal crossings each day.

Besides the San Ysidro port — who saw over 90,000 crossings a day —, the Otay Mesa Port of Entry is the second-most used in the region, averaging 39,500 crossings per day during the second quarter of 2024.

Despite the hold ups on the U.S. side, construction of the project on the Mexican side of the border is almost done, and Baja California officials have said pursued the idea of allowing empty commercial trucks to travel in a southbound direction only.

In July, Baja California Gov. Maria del Pilar Ávila Olmeda floated the idea of allowing trucks to cross the border from California into Mexico until the entire project is finished, but due to CBP's lack of funding to find personnel to operate the new facility has shut down the proposal.

"Until the issue of how to pay for personnel that will be in charge of the U.S. side of the crossing, there will be no advances on this project," Luken said. "We've made strides in the design portion of the project, but we can't move 100 percent forward without Congress appropriating funds for agents who will be operating the crossing."