San Ysidro Border - Tijuana

There has been a land border inspection station in the community of San Ysidro since the early 20th century.

San Ysidro Border Inspection Station in 1922
Since its beginning, cars, pedestrians and trains were inspected here.

In 1933 the NRHP-listed Old Customs House was built in Mission Revival style, and still stands housing offices. Trucks also once crossed at this location, but in the 1950s, due to congestion, all truck traffic was moved a short distance west to a crossing at Virginia Avenue. Then in 1983, the Otay Mesa Port of Entry was opened and all truck traffic is now inspected there.

The current San Ysidro Land Port of Entry facility was constructed in the 1970s to meet the needs of the time and the projected growth in the coming years. Nearly forty years later, this port of entry has reached its adequate operational capacity and after eight years of planning, it is ready for a major facelift.

With over 300,000 daily commuters crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, commuting has become a challenge for everyday commuters in the metropolitan region; visitors to and from Baja California spend one to three, and as many as five, hours waiting to enter into the United States. U.S. Border and Customs officials have said that newly implemented inspection technology and properly processing the large number of persons and vehicles who go through the port on a daily basis have resulted in long lines and long wait times.

The San Ysidro Land Port of Entry Expansion Project is a bi-national effort between the United States and Mexican governments which aims for the demolition, relocation, expansion, renovation, modernization and construction of new administrative and operational facilities of the current land port of entry in the San Ysidro district of San Diego. The project calls for a complete overhaul of the current international border inspection facilities on both sides of the border at a total cost of about $625 million which includes $577 million for the expansion of the northbound U.S. point of entry and roughly $48 million (MXN $598) for the construction of an entirely new southbound Mexican point of entry.