Arizona’s Kirsten Cinema on Tuesday stressed the need for additional expertise at the border after a visit to the nation’s busiest entry port.
Cinema, who serves as chairman of the Border Administration Subcommittee, visited the San Ysidro port of entry on the border between Mexico and California, north of Tijuana.
She informed Gaydos and Chad of KTAR Information 92.3 FM that the tour helped her understand the total scope of the challenges at the border.
“I actually saw a car that was stopped for smuggling drugs,” the cinema said. “I was inside a small trailer looking at an X-ray machine as a car came in with a smuggled drug in a spare tire.
“One of the many issues I reaffirm my dedication to is to invest within the expertise that our CBP officers must successfully detect and prevent the type of illegal entry.”
Cinema said he recently presided over a hearing aimed at border security challenges at ports of entry and wanted to understand how you can increase the effectiveness of the stream of commerce and travel through the country’s ports of entry, as well as It can also increase security from smugglers who transport drugs and people across the border.
“Visiting one of the busiest ports of entry in the world today helped me overcome some of the challenges that are specific to this part of the country.
“Specialization issues and we have to continue to increase our funds in expertise for border patrol brokers who are at these ports of entry who are interrogating people and looking for indicators of suspicious activity.”
The cinema also saw a car that just before the port of entry ran aground with a family that was looking for asylum and was handed over to the Mexican police.