OTAY MESA, CALIF.—The Otay Mesa passenger port of entry will increase its ability to process U.S. bound passenger vehicles for two weekends during the busy holiday season. CBP officials will convert four cargo truck lanes at the adjacent Otay Mesa Cargo Facility to supplement vehicle traffic lanes at passenger border crossing.
The governments of the U.S. and Mexico will collaborate to route northbound passenger cars through the Mexican Customs export lot into the CBP cargo facility during the early evening hours starting at about 5 p.m. until 12 midnight.
CBP will utilize the additional lanes at the cargo facility for two weekends, December 29th and 30th, and January 5th and 6th.
The conversion from trucks to passenger vehicles will begin once commercial cargo processing at the facilities ceases at about 4 p.m. The cargo lots on both sides of the border normally process commercial shipments of merchandise from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends and U.S. holidays.
"We worked to staff CBP officers during these two weekends in an effort to alleviate high levels of traffic during the holiday season," said Director of Field Operations for San Diego and Imperial Counties, Pete Flores. "We are pleased that the cargo facility could be employed efficiently and securely to temporarily extend the number of available passenger vehicle lanes leading into the U.S."
Mexican police officials will be positioned in the northbound lanes and will begin routing waiting northbound traffic into a cargo truck lane in Mexico that leads to the Mexican customs export lot. From there, the traffic will make its way north into the U.S. cargo import lot where four temporary primary processing lanes will be established to process vehicular traffic similar to that being accomplished in the passenger facility.
The temporary station will be able to issue I-94 permits for Mexican travelers and will include efforts by agricultural specialists to inspect any plants or food products brought in by travelers.