Arizona Senators call on President Biden to include robust funding for Arizona ports of entry in his annual budget proposal
WASHINGTON – Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly called on President Biden to include robust funding for Arizona’s ports of entry in his annual budget proposal to ensure these critical facilities are secure and can help facilitate billions of dollars’ worth of trade.
“As your administration works on your fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, we ask that robust funding be included in the General Services Administration budget request for land ports of entry construction projects critical for our state of Arizona…Completion of these projects will facilitate additional cross-border trade, improve our nation’s border security, and help our state and nation recover from COVID-19,” the Senators wrote.
In Arizona, more than 8.5 million people passed through a port of entry in 2019 and, despite border crossing restrictions, 423,000 commercial trucks passing through Arizona’s ports of entry in 2020, up from 416,000 in 2019. The Census Bureau estimates indicate that $29 billion worth of goods and services crossed through one of Arizona’s ports of entry in 2019, and that cross-border trade is critical to the national economy and can help us recover from the COVID-19 economic downturn. Ports of entry also play a critical role in protecting our communities and securing our border. Most seizures of illicit drugs at our border occur at ports of entry, and updated ports are better prepared to combat the flow of illegal goods and drugs.
Sinema and Kelly specifically call for funding for Arizona’s San Luis I Port of Entry modernization project, the construction of a new Commercial Port of Entry and the update of the Raul H. Castro Port of Entry in Douglas, AZ, and an update to the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, AZ.
Read the Senators’ letter HERE.