ARIZONA & MEXICO

Douglas
Noncommercial traffic through the Douglas port is only about half that of San Luis; the city of Agua
Prieta, Sonora had a 2010 population of only about 77,000. The volume of commercial traffic is
somewhat higher than at the San Luis port. Neither Douglas nor Agua Prieta, Sonora is connected to a
freeway; most of the commercial traffic goes through Nogales to the west or El Paso to the east.
Naco
Naco receives more noncommercial traffic than expected given the small number of local residents (only
6,000 in Naco, Sonora in 2010). It also receives more commercial truck traffic than expected given its
location, but the average value of goods per truck is lower than at the large ports.
Lukeville
Lukeville receives somewhat more noncommercial traffic than suggested based on the size of the
local population (less than 13,000 in 2010 in Sonoyta, Sonora) since the route to Puerto Peñasco, Sonora
(Rocky Point) passes through Lukeville. In contrast, Lukeville receives very little commercial traffic due to
its remote location.
Sasabe
Sasabe is Arizona’s most-lightly used port of entry. It has almost no commercial traffic and limited
noncommercial traffic. Sásabe, Sonora had only 1,000 residents in 2010. This remote location is served
by secondary roads in each country.
TRAFFIC THROUGH THE BORDER POINTS OF ENTRY
The data on border traffic are limited to those crossing from Mexico into the United States. Individuals
who cross the border into the United States may be Mexicans crossing for such reasons as employment
or shopping, or returning Americans. Complete annual data on the volume of traffic by port are available
for 1997 through 2014. 3 Counts are provided for a number of categories: trucks, loaded truck containers,
empty truck containers, trains, loaded rail containers, empty rail containers, train passengers, buses, bus
passengers, personal vehicles, personal vehicle passengers, and pedestrians.
The topic of border wait times has received considerable attention, but the data available from the U.S.
ports of entry indicate that the wait time for commercial vehicles generally is short — less than one
hour. 4 This is not a significant delay for trucks whose total travel time may be many hours. In contrast,
there may be substantial delays in Mexico before commercial vehicles even reach the U.S. border station.
As seen in Table 2, the share of commercial truck and train traffic crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014
that passed through Arizona’s ports ranged by category from 6-to-9 percent. The state’s share of the
number of individuals crossing the border was higher at 13 percent.
The Nogales port accounted for 82 percent of the number of commercial trucks crossing the border from
Sonora into Arizona in 2014. A very high percentage of the remaining truck traffic into Arizona crossed
in Douglas or San Luis. Nogales is not as dominant in terms of the number of individuals crossing the
border, but it still accounted for 43 percent of the state’s total, compared to 34 percent in San Luis and 17
percent in Douglas.
3
The data are reported monthly, with about a six-month lag.
4
At a few border crossings, wait times for passenger vehicles may be longer.
31 • ARIZONA & MEXICO • ARIZONA TOWN HALL • APRIL 2016