Bulletin
November 8, 2021
Border restrictions
have become far more manageable. At last so-called non-essential travelers with
the appropriate travel documents can once again cross into the U.S., needing
only to hold proof of vaccination. Looking forward, in January 2022 anyone crossing
the border for either essential or non-essential travel and who is not a U.S.
citizen or a green card holder will have to be vaccinated in order to travel
northbound.
There’s no question
that lines and waits will be long at first. U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) has been quite frank about this, but I trust CBP will sort
it out soon. This is an unprecedented transition, so your patience and
understanding are required. CBP asks travelers not to cross during peak times,
mainly 4:00AM to 9:00AM on weekdays and from 2:00PM until midnight on weekends.
CBP asks everyone
needing an I-94 tourist permit if traveling over 25 miles from the San Diego
border to obtain it online, either by downloading the CBP One app or by going
to https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home.
CBP will NOT process I-94 forms for pedestrians at the ports of entry,
so you must get your online I-94 permit up to a maximum of 7 days before you
travel.
Already there has
been a sea change in air travel, though people from Mexico could already travel
freely by air to the U.S. Delta said that since the reopening was announced six
weeks ago, it has seen a 450% increase in international point-of-sale bookings.
United Airlines is expecting 50% more total international inbound passengers
today, November 8.
*****
Our coalition has been cooperating with CBP to notify
organizations and governments in Baja California of the November 8th
changes. Sally Carrillo, CBP
Assistant
Port Director, and her team have been tireless in planning
for the changes.
It is important to note that schedules at certain ports
will change. Tecate’s new hours will
be 6:00AM to 10:00PM as of yesterday, adding eight hours to the schedule. Calexico East’s new times will be
6:00AM to 10:00PM. Calexico West, Otay
Mesa, and San Ysidro schedules
will remain the same.
*****
Baja State Governor Marina del Pilar Avila took
the oath of office in Mexicali on October 31st. Many welcomed this as a breath of fresh air
for a state where we had observed so much animosity between the previous
governor and the business class, whether local businesspeople or Fortune 1000
manufacturing facility directors.
The new governor was thankful to President López Obrador, one of her mentors, and women leaders such as Mexico City Governor
Claudia Scheinbaum, present at the
event. The president sent Economy
Secretary Tatiana Clouthier to
represent himself. Governor Avila spoke about reconciling with the business
class as well as managing the many challenges the state has in terms of water vulnerability,
energy shortages, and others, but pledging to do it with the “heart first” (“con
el corazón por delante”).
I was fortunate enough to attend a small dinner
with Secretary Clouthier that
evening at Mexicali’s best Chinese restaurant, Imperial Palace on Madero
Street. As a typical “Culichi” (from Culiacán, Sinaloa), she
is direct and to the point. We discussed border issues such as the illegal imports
of used vehicles and tires into Mexico, a
problem for many decades.
*****
The San Diego Union-Tribune published an op-ed co-authored
by Carlos Jaramillo, president of the
Tijuana Economic Development Council, and me on strategically
strengthening the CaliBaja region now that the border has
reopened. Please see https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2021-11-05/us-mexico-border-reopens-jobs-travel.
Our op-ed was part of a series of opinion pieces about what it means to reopen.
The writers, Alan Bersin, Melissa Floca,
and Congressman Juan Vargas, among
others, are featured in
the Sunday, November 7 edition of the paper and may also be found in the online
edition.
The Tijuana business class should build on the Union-Tribune’s coverage of this vital
topic. Business leaders could craft a communications strategy with the
newspaper’s editorial board with articles published at least quarterly . This
way, U.S. readers will have access to fresh and so far unrecognized perspectives
on the second-largest city on the west coast of North American after Los
Angeles.
*****
Port
of Ensenada opportunities continue to appear, but much
has to happen before the port is ready to take on the huge amounts of
undelivered cargo contained in vessels waiting off Long Beach and Los Angeles ports.
The latter two ports handle 21 to 22
million Twenty-Foot Economic Units (TEUs) per year, while Ensenada, after its current
expansion, will be able to offer only one million TEUs. This would be less
than 5% of what the California ports handle.
Isn’t it time to think of Ensenada as a much larger
opportunity? Could southern California ports, including San Diego and National
City, be interested in an investment arrangement with Mexican private capital,
the current port operator, and the Mexican government to truly turn the corner
on receiving Asian cargo? Now is as good a moment as ever to consider this.
*****
I was delighted to hear that California State Senator Ben Hueso visited the Guadalupe Valley wine country south of
Tijuana with fellow Senator Brian
Jones, Assemblymember Robert
Rivas, as well as Conrado Ayala and
Jacqueline Reynoso of Cordoba Corporation https://cordobacorp.com/,
Lourdes
Jimenez of Sempra and
Peter Silva of Silva-Silva
International. They heard about mobility and water treatment projects and
also spoke at length with wine makers in the valley. Hueso is a true ambassador
for California in Baja California. He understands Mexican culture very well and
is a great friend of the state.
He and his group were also guests of Governor Avila on Wednesday in Tecate for a discussion about
binational issues. This is a welcome start to the new state administration!
*****
Our Stakeholders
Working Committee meeting last Thursday brought several new faces to our
forum. Ernesto Chavez, the newly
minted Binational Affairs Director
for the City of Tijuana, was all business as he presented the city’s
binational objectives. The new municipal administration has taken the bull by
the horns by addressing the El Chaparral
migrant encampment problem head-on.
A simple yet significant decision was to create a census
for migrants. This effort to keep track of the individuals in the tent
community had the effect of driving away almost two-thirds of those who were
there for reasons that had nothing to do with migration and who were involved
in questionable practices and activities with migrants. Questionable activities
could be selling illegitimate immigration representation and goods and
services, trafficking in illicit drugs, and even trafficking in minors.
Director Chavez also highlighted the city’s continued
involvement in relocating encampment members, offering them space in shelters.
He spoke about eliminating the so-called “pedestrian medical lane” at San
Ysidro, working with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the
City of San Diego to make traffic
tickets in Tijuana show up on Americans’ driving records, establishing a police
officer watch group to guide tourists on weekends, equipping Tijuana officers at
the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro ports with motorcycles to support their activities
on behalf of travelers.
Our Stakeholders also heard from Dr. Abraham Sánchez-Frehem, president
of the Medical Health Cluster (https://www.mhcluster.org/) The cluster is a non-profit that
brings together medical professional associations and institutions, independent
professionals and companies with common interests for the promotion and
development of medical tourism and medical advancement in the State of Baja
California.
He was highly critical of the way the City of Tijuana has
managed the medical lane and proposed using the Citizen’s Committee on Medical Tourism to work with the city to run
a reformed, tolled medical lane. Funds coming from this
lane should be given to entrepreneurs whose projects and
business plans could improve port of entry and surrounding area issues. Funds
should also be used to beautify areas surrounding the ports. Dr. Sánchez and his cluster are advocating 100%
transparency in how funds are managed.
*****
The Valle de
Guadalupe wine industry’s woes continue, but the growers are starting to
get some good news. This past weekend Governor
Avila agreed to eliminate the 4.5%
state tax on wine bottles sold in Baja California. It is widely known that water scarcity and
salinity could devastate the state’s wine industry if drastic measures are not
taken in the short term. There is also a great need to enforce land regulation
laws in the valley. It is no secret that some elected officials have ignored
zoning requirements, allowing commercial establishments incompatible with the
wine industry to set up shop.
******
I sat down with Tim
Schwartz, California Institute for
Innovation and Development director https://rady.ucsd.edu/centers/ciid/, to discuss
how we can develop a truly global 2022 Border
Innovation Challenge, with multiple participants, whether students or entrepreneurs
from North America.
I’ve always argued that we should be expansive in the way
we talk about the border. Limiting competitions to a few universities and
entrepreneurs from our region does a disservice to our urgent need to
transition into a functional and aesthetically pleasing border.
*****
Among his many activities at the head of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, Rafael
Fernandez de Castro has found time to advise the new Baja California state
government on energy, water, security, migration, health, and infrastructure.
Rafael’s relationships with the best of the best among many academic
disciplines, journalists, researchers, and elected officials has given him a
well-deserved reputation as one of our region’s greatest binational connectors.
“CaliBaja:
Moving Forward Together” is the next iteration of the
“CaliBaja Dialogues” that Rafael started last year that featured expert
analyses and reports on migration, border crossings and infrastructure, health,
food,
philanthropy, government policy, talent, medical
tourism, water, and energy. This new
step attempts to take the issues we discussed last year and put them into a
more practical context, setting courses of action, asking ourselves, “what do
we do now?”
*****
I joined the “Silicon
Valley to Silicon Wadi: California’s Economic Ties with Israel” conference
featuring California Lieutenant
Governor Eleni Kounalakis. I was amazed to hear that the bilateral
relationship for business goes back many decades and that it spans several
areas: water management, climate-smart agriculture, cybersecurity, healthtech,
and mobility. What’s more, Israel and California have created an institutional
framework that includes binational industry, agriculture, science foundations,
and clusters.
What is intensely motivating about events like this is
that they incite us ask how much Baja California and California can do
together, constructively. Kudos to Sean
Randolph of the Bay Area Economic
Council (http://www.bayareaeconomy.org/)
for putting this together.
*****
The International Community Foundation (ICF, www.icfdn.org) is searching for a new CEO. As the board
chair, I have seen the organization’s great work, particularly in education,
health, environment, and migration along the entire Baja peninsula. Many people
think of the foundation as an organization limited to moving money in the form
of grants to non-profits in Mexico. Yes, it does this, but more importantly,
ICF works on the ground, understanding needs, vetting organizations, helping in
terms of capacity building, alliances, and consulting projects and monitoring
the impact that philanthropic money is having on the communities served.
*****
Our next online Stakeholders
Working Committee meeting will convene on January 13, 2022 from 9:00AM
to 11:00AM in San Diego. You will be
receiving an invitation shortly.
Sincerely,
Gustavo De La Fuente
Executive Director
gdelafuente@smartbordercoalition.com / (619) 814-1386
