The budget plan presented this morning by President Barack Obama includes a $226 million dollar expansion of the San Ysidro checkpoint.

If this plan is approved, this will allow the General Services Administration (GSA) to have sufficient funds to complete the project, as reported by the Chamber of Commerce of Otay Mesa, located in the San Diego County.

Currently, this project is in its final stage of the first phase that includes the expansion of the north lanes heading into the U.S.

It is expected that the last stage of this project will be the remodeling and construction of the pedestrian booths that are the ports crossing into the United States.

Originally the state of Baja California built some facilities to support "El Chaparral"- the port of entry into Mexico- in an effort to decrease the waiting time. But instead they decided to donate those facilities to U.S. Once the work for these facilities is finished, it will then be turned over to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who will be responsible for its operation.

Brenda.Colon@sandiegored.com

Omar.Martinez@sandiegored.com