Trade-Offs Between Security and Inspection Capacity: Policy Options for Land Border Ports of Entry

Abstract

Observations of primary inspections at land border ports of entry between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, indicate that the majority of inspections are of limited duration and detail. Three policy options are considered for allowing more thorough primary inspections. The first would require all primary inspections to involve opening a vehicle compartment. This would increase average inspection times from 34 s to 70 s. The second option would limit the time in primary inspections to 63 s. Vehicles requiring more time to complete the inspection process would be referred to secondary inspections, which would greatly increase the frequency of referrals to secondary inspections but would allow for the percentage of primary inspections that involve physical inspection of at least one vehicle compartment to be increased to 35%. The third option would increase the number of crossers in the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) program, in which prescreened participants are s...