Delays Ease at U.S.-Mexican Border

Security along the U.S.-Mexico border remained tight Thursday, although motorists found relief from delays that had reached up to four hours following this week’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

U.S. and Mexican officials asked border-area residents to avoid making nonessential trips across the international boundary to reduce backups that reached a peak on Wednesday. Even those crossing on foot had to wait up to two hours to pass through metal detectors and undergo other security checks.

The waits eased on Thursday, but many Tijuana residents who work in the United States got out of bed hours early and parked their cars in Mexico in preparation for long lines that never materialized.

Delays on Wednesday, the worst that many residents could remember, caused some workers to get to work five hours late.

“It’s been our way of life for a long time, but we’ve never seen anything like this,” said Cecilia Ibarra, who got up two hours early Thursday and walked across the border after enduring a 3 1/2-hour wait the day before.

Ibarra, a Tijuana resident who works at a junkyard on the U.S. side, left her car parked near the border, as she did in desperation Wednesday after sitting in traffic for two hours. She had to wait another 90 minutes in a pedestrian line Wednesday that U.S. immigration officials said stretched up to two miles into Tijuana at its peak.

But on Thursday, Ibarra was able to cross over in just 20 minutes, putting her at work nearly two hours early. Many of her co-workers also arrived early, having allowed extra time for expected delays.

“We just didn’t want to get stuck,” Ibarra said.

U.S. authorities said the reduced waits resulted from more streamlined procedures in searching the cars of border-crossers and checking pedestrians. Motorists were being stopped about 100 yards before the official inspection booths so inspectors could look under hoods and inside trunks. Pedestrians passed through metal detectors and U.S. officers ran computer checks on their driver’s licenses and other identification.

“We’re trying to ask folks not to come if they absolutely don’t need to. We’ll do everything we have to to protect the public,” said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Diego.

The San Ysidro border crossing was closed for more than 90 minutes Tuesday night after a caller reported bombs had been planted at the port of entry and a nearby school. San Diego police bomb specialists found no explosives.

About 40,000 vehicles enter the United States at San Ysidro each day. Volume dropped to less than half that on Wednesday. It appeared to rebound slightly Thursday, but exact figures were not yet available.

Border crossers are used to long delays with little warning and most were trying to stay calm in the face of the latest exigencies.

“It’s very secure right now,” said Ruth Elguezabal of San Ysidro, who crossed on foot. “I’m OK with it. We need to be more secure.”

But Bill Cox, a San Diego resident returning from visiting friends in Mexico, said he saw little usefulness in the rigorous border checks. “I don’t see much point in it. They’re not stopping the kind of thing that happened [on Tuesday],” he said.

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Times correspondent Paul Levikow contributed to this story.