BOOST ON THE BORDER
Columbus, Palomas anticipate new opportunities in new port of entry
COLUMBUS — In this small New Mexico border town, the talk isn’t of a wall, but of trade and a new port of entry. Construction is slated to begin in April on an $85 million port facility for customs and security checks at the state’s oldest official border crossing.
The federal government’s investment, in the works for years, is expected to boost crossborder trade at a time when the U.S.-Mexico relationship is on the rocks.
A wall of steel columns standing 18 feet high divides the line between Columbus and Palomas in Mexico. The U.S. port of entry, which dates to the 1980s, sees the highest level of pedestrian traffic of New Mexico’s three ports, as hundreds of children who live in Palomas, but are U.S. citizens, cross every morning to attend school in Columbus. During the late-summer harvest, the port’s commercial lanes see hundreds of 18-wheelers filled to the brim with green chile headed north for processing.
With the new infrastructure on the way, Columbus Mayor Philip Skinner says he sees opportunity for the village with a population 1,625, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But jobs aren’t going to materialize without an effort, he said.
“I disagree with people who say, ‘Your new port of entry is coming and you are going to be busier,’” he said. “Nope, not necessarily. Not unless we make it happen.”
To that end — ignoring the heated rhetoric and soured relations between Washington and Mexico City — business leaders on both sides of the border have established a new organization, the Columbus Palomas Industrial Alliance, with a mission to create jobs for the region.
“Columbus and Palomas are a very integrated community and now, with the port of entry getting the upgrade, there is an opportunity for the public and private sectors to cooperate
and bring new opportunities to that region,” said Jerry Pacheco, a longtime recruiter of businesses to the New Mexico border and a founding board member of the alliance. “That cooperation happens naturally at a local level because we have a binational community. Whether Washington or Mexico City are not getting along, it makes perfect business sense to cooperate on the border as a region.”
Columbus proper sits about three miles from the border, a close-knit community with a block-long downtown that includes a city hall, sheriff’s outpost, public library, theater, chamber of commerce and one restaurant. Across from Columbus is the ramshackle village of Palomas with a population of about 5,000 people, and a main drag lined with pharmacies, dentists and eyewear stores that cater to Americans looking for cheap health care.
The small population on both sides of the border here has always been an impediment to sustained economic development. There is almost no industry to speak of in Columbus proper, where 54 percent of residents live in poverty and the median income is $10,900 for men and $9,765 for women, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
At the port of entry, “traffic is up over 10 years ago, over five years ago,” said Skinner, who owns the Los Milagros Hotel in Columbus. “We are busier. But that hasn’t translated into jobs in our community.”
The chile trucks, for example, rarely stop in town, he said. They rush their cargo to southern New Mexico’s chileprocessing plants, then head back south of the border.
Construction of the new port of entry itself will be an economic shot to the arm as companies hire and bring labor to town, and patronize local businesses. But Skinner wants the village to build on that momentum.
Skinner said, “If we are creating some infrastructure on this side … we’re going to have things kind of ready. But if we don’t go out and find someone to come in and utilize it, we’ve accomplished nothing.”
Pacheco said the region could attract suppliers to the agriculture and other industries in northwestern Mexico.
“Columbus-Palomas is not going to attract the same type of industry as Santa Teresa, but there are agriculture-based opportunities,” he said.
Carlos Yates, Chihuahua state director of a Mexican federal economic development agency called ProMéxico, is on the alliance board. His organization is interested in developing business clusters on the border that use the resources available on both sides.
“We are two countries, but we are one region,” Yates said. “Here, you have a market and an inexpensive, high-quality labor force. The technology, the design, the investments are in the United States.”
When it comes to cross-border trade, he said, “Estamos unidos. We are united.”