GSA hosts public meeting expanding Douglas’ Port of Entry

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) hosted a public scoping meeting on Thursday at the Douglas Visitor’s Center to inform and receive feedback from residents about the expansion of the Raul Hector Castro Land Port of Entry. The project is funded by the bipartisan infrastructure law which passed in January of this year.

“The project budgets – the two projects are slightly over $400 million dollars, and really represent one of the most significant investments in southeastern Arizona in a generation,” said Anthony Kleppe, US. General Services Administration Region 9 Land Port of Entry Program Manager. “The U.S. Land Ports of Entry are really engines of economic opportunity for the communities that they serve. So, small communities like Douglas’s Land Port of Entry is really the biggest economic draw for that community.”

Kleppe said that the main reason to have a separate commercial port is to keep the large mining equipment and chemicals away from the center of Douglas.

“We have very large pieces of mining equipment, potentially hazardous mining chemicals, and substances,” said Kleppe. “It’s important to create some separation from the residential areas and the community.”

GSA’s proposal includes two action and one non-action option. The public is encouraged to submit feedback to the GSA by August 22.

The first action option will consist of two phases: the first phase is to build a new commercial port about five miles away from the Raul Hector Castro Port — which will only be for commercial vehicles to pass in and out of the U.S. and Mexico border. Once completed, the GSA will then expand, refurbish and designate the traffic coming through the Raul Hector Castro Port for pedestrian and privately owned vehicles only.

The second action plan includes expanding the Raul Hector Castro Port and constructing the new commercial port at the same time; the Raul Hector Castro Port will remain open and operational throughout the construction process.

The non-action option details keeping the Raul Hector Castro Port as the only Land Port of Entry for the Douglas area.

Some were approving of the project, excited that after years of discussion it’s now coming together.

Irma Villobos Terán, who was the former mayor of Agua Prieta from 2012-2015, said that she and former mayor of Douglas Danny Ortega Jr. had been discussing expanding the port for six years.

“It’s going to be good for Mexico, it’s going to be good for the United States,” said Villobos Terán. “It’s not just a solution for the work that we have today — all the work that would come. All those exportations that will come and all the importations from the U.S. too … All those exportations that will come and all the importations from the U.S. too. It would be a lot busier. I think Douglas is going to grow, and so, it’s going to be successful, this project.”

Residents were generally approving of the expansion of the existing port and the addition of a new commercial port, but some are concerned about the new commercial port’s distance from the city, citing concerns of a loss in the economic driver and the birth of a new community outside of the city.

“The only thing that scares us is if the port goes out eight miles, all these new motels and everything coming in won’t help us revitalize the geography,” said Marco Salcido, a resident of Douglas. “It will take most of the businesses out there and kinda make town — like a ghost town.”

He and his wife Melissa said that they would prefer that the new commercial port be closer to Douglas, as the traffic coming in and out of Douglas provides a boost to the local economy.

“‘Cause the port if it’s closer in town, then that means that more businesses have to come closer to town and it will make our town bigger,” Salcido said. “Most of all of our warehouses are in town, close to people who work here and everything. So, the other thought that we have is if the warehouses get built out there, what would happen to the old ones out here?”

Frank Ambriz, who used to work for Cochise County, also shares Salcido’s concerns and recommends moving the port nearby the corrals in Douglas.

“I think that we need the port, but at the same time, we need to start thinking ‘is it too far from Douglas?’” said Ambriz. “Because what happens is it brings some people into Douglas, the truck drivers that can spend money here in town.”

Kleppe said that the GSA completed a feasibility study in 2019 that identified the nearly five-mile west location for the commercial port as an ideal location considering need and safety concerns.

“The Douglas port of entry is actually a port that large pieces of mining equipment go between the U.S. and Mexico,” Kleppe said. “The equipment can be sometimes as large as a house. And so as you can imagine, bringing very large piece of commercial equipment through a downtown area is very disruptive and potentially dangerous to the community …”

“And so, as part of a feasibility study we completed in 2019, we identified the need through these commercial functions about four-and-a-half miles west of the existing downtown port and construct a new Land Port of Entry to serve that region,” he continued.

The GSA is soliciting comments from the public on the plan for expanding the ports either via email at osmahn.kadri@gsa.gov or by mail at 77 Upper Rock Circle, Suite 302 Rockville, MD, 20850.

“We anticipate finalizing the master plans for both facilities in the next 18 months and will baseline schedules for design-build delivery upon completion,” said GSA Region 9 Public Affairs Officer Andra Higgs in an email.