Speaking Tuesday afternoon, Cuitláhuac Duarte Sígala, president of the Association of Customs Agents of Tijuana and Tecate (AAATYT), stressed that the current border infrastructure in Tijuana has failed to keep pace with surging demand.
He noted that the city’s border crossings have seen no significant expansion in three decades, even as the local population has multiplied.
“This isn’t a problem that can be solved overnight,” Duarte said. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Tijuana was built over 50 years.”
Duarte pointed to a stark example: the number of vehicle access lanes at the border remains unchanged from 30 years ago, despite Tijuana’s dramatic population boom over the same period.
“In my view, Tijuana should have not two or three, but four border crossings,” Duarte said.
He acknowledged that such an expansion would be a complex, long-term undertaking requiring coordinated efforts from multiple levels of government, but insisted it is necessary to meet current demand.
“We’ve overloaded Tijuana because everyone wants to come here,” he added. “The reality is that we are critically short on infrastructure.”
The shortage has taken a visible toll on binational mobility, with both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks frequently enduring wait times of up to five hours to cross between Tijuana and San Diego. Duarte cautioned that without meaningful investment in new crossings, these delays will only worsen.
“If you’re not willing to build more infrastructure, then you have to accept the consequence of waiting in a five-hour line,” he said. “The same applies to goods. They have to move within that same restricted window.”
