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But Pence did not spend time in the city of Nogales itself. If he had done so, he might have heard a contradictory message from the inhabitants of the Twin Cities, known as "Ambos Nogales" (or "The Two Nogales") : The harshness and unpredictability of Trump's border security policies have made their daily lives more difficult and precarious, not safer.
Nogales, Arizona, population 20,000, and its sister city Mexican Nogales, Sonora, about 10 times larger, have long depended on each other's cross-border activity to thrive. Many local extended families straddle both sides of the border. There are three main legal crossing points: a pedestrian-only downtown; another, also located in the city center, also allows passenger vehicles; and one on the western outskirts of the city that focuses on commercial vehicle traffic while allowing those doing it on foot or in private vehicles.
Every day, on average, more than 9,300 people cross the border – students in backpacks on their way to school, workers, shoppers, tourists. Going south, there is no waiting; to enter the United States, that's another story. Nearly 9,900 passenger vehicles and more than 900 trucks also cross, carrying US products and products to the south and Mexican products and products to the north.
In the huge refrigerated warehouse at Chamberlain Distributing Inc., just a few miles north of the border, co-owner Jaime Chamberlain could barely contain his frustration over Trump's policy Wednesday as workers forklifts loaded with boxes of fresh tomatoes, squash and peppers and cucumbers on board trucks heading to destinations across the United States.
"I need some stability to grow my business," he said. "When the President of the United States says," I will close the border; I want to close the border now; now I'm going to give Mexico a year and then maybe I'll close it "- how can I plan when it says at any point that entry points might be closed?"
Chamberlain, who said his company was importing more than 150 million pounds of Mexican fruits and vegetables a year, said all these uncertainties had led Tuesday to cancel a $ 1.6 million investment planned to develop his business with a Mexican producer.
"I understand, we have a problem with so many migrants and asylum seekers," he said. "But you can not solve the problem by weakening the entry points, and that's what you do."
At Nogales & # 39; s Mariposa Crossing, the center primarily dedicated to commercial vehicle traffic, CBP opened the port on Sundays from February or March to May, at the height of the month for Mexican fruits and vegetables. But the move of the Port of Nogales customs officials led CBP last weekend to suspend this program for this year, after only two Sundays, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, a organization based in Nogales that represents importers.
"In Arizona, if the port is closed on Sunday, companies have to think about sending their products elsewhere," said Jungmeyer. "It's dangerous for us."
Jungmeyer said the relocation of customs officers to assist the Border Patrol is relying on an agency that is already short of staff at entry points for months. According to the National Union of Treasury Employees, which represents customs officers, CBP had 1,600 job vacancies last month and was seeking funding for 1,900 additional hires. In Nogales, the union said, in recent months customs officers were regularly asked to work consecutive eight-hour shifts to make up for the shortfall.
Beyond commercial traffic, the shortage of CBP agents also affects other passengers on the street.
On Wednesday afternoon, on North Arroyo Boulevard, in northern Arizona, three high school students heading for the border and returning home to Nogales, in the state of Sonora, stopped in front of an agency to exchange with a journalist. Many Mexican students have dual nationality and go to the United States every day to go to school. But these days, unpredictable delays at the border mean a departure early to avoid arriving late.
"It's worse now," said Laysha, a junior. (CNN only uses first names because the students are minors.) She stated that waiting times had been lengthened but less predictable in recent weeks. "It may take half an hour or an hour," said Diana, also a junior.
To reach the Nogales High School now, said the girls, they leave now at 5:30 pm, two hours before the start of classes, so they can cross the border and take a bus to make the trip. km. "If we are early, we go to the cafeteria," said Nicole, a sophomore.
Then come asylum seekers and other migrants trying to get legal admission to the port, who have to deal with longer waiting times. About a kilometer further, on the Mexican side of the border, Arturo Garcia, his wife Rosario, and their four children walked past a graveyard covered with flowers and colorful ribbons that afternoon to line up with over 100 others. migrants outside of a soup race. by the Kino Border Initiative, a Catholic humanitarian organization. Garcia, who used to harvest lawyers, said he fled the town of Tlacotepec, in the state of Guerrero, southern Mexico, because of fighting between rival cartels.
"We came to Nogales because we were told that it would be faster to cross here," he said. But the Garcias have been waiting for a little over a month "and we are told that it will be in a month and a half, maybe more, before it's our turn," he said.
In the Kino dining room, advocacy director Joanna Foote Williams helped a migrant woman choose donated clothes. The usual expectation of asylum seekers has risen sharply since December, said Williams, while the list maintained by another humanitarian group of people waiting on the Mexican side to apply for asylum has gone from 150 to more. 400 people.
Border patrol agents posted at the closing on Tuesday and Wednesday refused to give their names. One of them said that he had discovered that the razor wire was helping marijuana smugglers who were crossing the fence.
"It slows them down … a bit," he says. "They do not come that often."
In Nogales, one of the few border patrol agents to meet with a journalist agreed.
"I'll just tell them that we ask them to respect the rules, so we should respect them," he said.
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