Borderland leaders tout Tornillo port of entry for ‘investment,’ commercial activity
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso County and Borderland business leaders continue to tout the port of entry in Tornillo as a great business opportunity.
County and business leaders held a news conference Tuesday, Feb. 27 to discuss ongoing efforts to promote the Marcelino Serna port of entry for commercial crossings.
Back in August, U.S. Customs and Border Protection resumed processing commercial truck traffic at the port of entry. The cargo area at the port of entry opened in March 2016 but suspended operations a little over a year later due to low traffic volumes.
Since reopening, Mexican truckers have held at least one protest, saying they don’t feel safe using that port of entry.
Andrea Hutchins, chief executive officer of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, spoke to KTSM after the news conference and said that the port of entry in Tornillo “presents an extreme opportunity for investment in our region” and it can be used to boost commercial activity in the eastern part of El Paso County.
Hutchins said the economic development team at the County and local business leaders have been proactively seeking ways to encourage investment and business activity surrounding Tornillo port of entry.
“We know people are consistently talking about near shorting, on shoring, all the different types of investment occurring in Mexico,” Hutchins said. “Certainly, there is a great deal of spillover economic opportunity here in El Paso County.”
The Tornillo port of entry also has the potential to alleviate some of the commercial truck traffic at other ports of entry like the Bridge of the Americas, she said.
Residents who live near BOTA have been protesting plans to upgrade that port of entry and have repeatedly asked that commercial truck traffic be removed from that facility.
“We know we need additional outlets in our region for commercial traffic,” Hutchins said. “We see the wait times. We hear the complaints from businesses on both sides of the border. Any and every opportunity that we have to expedite the flow of traffic across our borders is a win for our community.”
Hutchins added that regional leaders need to look at the Borderland’s ports of entry as “one system.”
“Goods and services run efficiently when we operate and use our ports of entry to their highest and best use,” she said.
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