SENTRI Lane moving forward at stakeholders meeting

The Douglas/Agua Prieta Port of Entry held their monthly stakeholders group meeting on January 10 at the Douglas Visitors Center.

Present at the meeting were both the Douglas Mayor Danny Ortega Jr. and Agua Prieta Mayor Irma Villalobos along with representative from the city of Douglas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), U.S. Consulate, Aduanas de Mexico, the Mexican Consulate and local merchants.

At the November 15, 2012 meeting a technical working group was establish and comprised of representatives from the City of Douglas, Agua Prieta, CBP, Aduanas de Mexico and the Consulado de Mexico. Their task is to identify and designate a SENTRI lane in Agua Prieta with the appropriate placement of infrastructure and signage.

SENTRI was established to expedite the Southwest Land Border movement of eligible, pre-screened, low-risk, pre-approved travelers through designated vehicle traffic lanes. This program reduces wait times that are costly to the traveler, while enhancing the security of our borders. SENTRI members are able to use dedicated lanes at the border and are not regularly subjected to normal customs and immigration questioning. This helps reduce traffic congestion and delays while maintaining high levels of security border crossings.

The technical working group presented a map that showed how traffic would be directed on Agua Prieta’s side.

CBP Port Director, Michael Humphries said that lane seven would be used for buses and ambulances, lane six and if need lane five would be used as SENTRI lanes.

The City of Douglas is working with CBP on finding a location for the SENTRI enrollment center in Douglas.

Currently there’s a “Ready Lane” in Douglas. Ready Lane is a dedicated primary vehicle lane for travelers entering the U.S. at land border ports of entry. Travelers who obtain and travel with a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) compliant Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enabled travel document may receive the benefits of utilizing a Ready Lane to expedite the inspection process while crossing the border.

Guillermo Morales with the U.S. Consulate encourages travelers to obtain Radio-frequency identification (RFID) passport or a border crossing card to be able to use both the Ready Land and SENTRI lane.

The Douglas Industrial Development Association will work with CBP design ideas for the parking lot they are trying acquire from the City of Douglas.

This is the second time these representatives come together and they will continue to work on improving the flow of traffic both south and north bound.

Mayor Villalobos said, everyone’s opinion is very important to be able to work together to accomplish the best for Agua Prieta and Douglas.