Holiday weekend travelers and local residents faced long waits at Arizona ports of entry Monday. Cars were lined up for miles, waiting as long as five hours to cross the border at Arizona’s busiest port in Nogales.
And about 100 miles west, representatives from the popular Sonoran beach town Rocky Point collected signatures from tourists waiting hours at the Sonoyta-Lukeville crossing. It’s for a petition asking CBP to address long waits by adding a trusted traveler, or SENTRI, lane to the small port frequented by Arizona tourists.
“We have a lot of people crossing every holiday, every week, every weekend, so to cross faster we need this SENTRI lane," said Lizette Ibarra, director of Rocky Point’s convention and visitors center.
She said there has been talk of adding a SENTRI lane at Lukeville since 2017. But nothing has materialized, and local tourism and business leaders started the petition in hopes of speeding up the process. They been collecting signatures from tourists, Rocky Point residents and recently put the petition online at Change.org.
The petition is an unusual route to getting a new lane added at a port of entry, but Ibarra said it’s a way to gain support and attention to the cause.
“This is a need that we have to address as soon as possible," she said, adding that both Arizona and Sonora need to continue collaborating to ease border waits.