Small border crossings to get big share of funds

WASHINGTON -- Millions of dollars in stimulus funds will pay to upgrade little-used border crossings, including one that handled just two cars a day last year, while many of the nation's busiest entry points will get nothing, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

Trade advocates are assailing the plan, saying money should go to busy border crossings to ease congestion and boost commerce.

"If we can move traffic much quicker, we're stimulating the economy," said Douglas Doan of the Border Trade Alliance advocacy group. "If you put your funding at ports of entry that have almost no trade, then you're getting no return."

The administration has selected 44 of the 139 federal border crossings to share $720 million in the stimulus package for general upgrades in facilities where vehicles and people from Canada and Mexico are checked. Border crossings handled a total of 325,000 vehicles a day last year and $700 billion in trade.

The Homeland Security Department is developing plans to allot $420 million to 37 "small" border crossings, said Trent Frazier, deputy director of the port modernization office.

Fourteen of the crossings screened fewer than 50 cars and 85 people a day in 2008, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics data. Whitetail, Mont., averaged two cars and four people a day; Whitlash, Mont., averaged three cars and five people; Hannah, N.D., averaged seven cars and 14 people.

Among the crossings receiving no money are El Paso and Laredo, Texas, which handled $165 billion in trade combined in 2008. Trucks entering the U.S. at those crossings routinely wait two hours, said Texas Transportation Institute researcher Juan Villa.

A 2007 study by the San Diego Association of Governments found that border-crossing delays in California, caused by "inadequate infrastructure," cost the U.S. and Mexican economies $7.2 billion a year and 62,000 jobs.

Frazier said small crossings "have been overlooked for years" and need upgrades while large crossings in San Diego and Laredo are being expanded. Some crossings on the Canadian border lack buildings where vehicles can be inspected, which means "our officers have to perform those inspections exposed to the elements," Frazier said.