Nine years ago, when the port of entry Puerta México in San Ysidro was inaugurated, it represented a more viable and quick option for the return of Mexicans to Mexico, as it is known that around 87,000 Tijuana natives cross daily to the United States and come back to Mexico in the afternoons. However, due to growing traffic and demographic increases, these people have been facing a great obstacle in the last few years: long lines that makes them wait up to 3 hours.

To resolve this issue, the Secretary of Economy and Innovation of Baja California, Kurt Honold Morales, has proposed to open more crossing lanes from the United States into Tijuana:

We gave the city a plan after this urgent request. We are still waiting for authorization to begin. This is something that we need and we need to do it.

Since November, when the Mexican government decided to refurbish the southbound traffic lanes by adding new facial recognition technology, long delays have become something that happens daily. Currently, there are 18 crossing lanes, but they are not enough due to high demand.

Supposedly, works were supposed to end last week, which would allow for more traffic lanes and improved traffic flow, however, these projects have stalled and some lanes are still closed.

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Honold Morales stated:

"Everybody wants this, especially those who live here, but work over there."

The project symbolizes an opportunity for the next administration of Tijuana, which will need to coordinate with San Diego authorities to reach an agreement and change roads inside Mexico. Part of the problem is the bottleneck that is created once cars enter Tijuana, causing the temporary or partial closure of nearby main roads. One of them is the El Chaparral bridge, which has been closed for more than a year after structure damage was detected.

Currently, there is a Facebook group called “Cómo está la fila para SALIR a Tijuana”, to give drivers a sense of how much time it will take them to go back to Mexico. People are being recommended to come back before 3 PM.

It should be noted that vehicular flow at the El Chaparral port of entry is 50,000 vehicles per day, according to Mexican Customs.

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