gabriela rico / Arizona Daily Star

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Nogales port gets new technology

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NOGALES, Ariz. — Screening people at the Arizona-Mexico border is going high-tech.

In January, U.S. Customs and Border Protection began requiring documentation of U.S. citizenship in lieu of oral declarations.

Now, Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) will help port officers confirm the identity of some travelers and speed up waiting times at the border, Craig Hope, assistant port director in Nogales, said Thursday.

Starting Monday, travelers returning from Mexico through the Mariposa Port of Entry may face delays as Customs and Border Protection begins installing the RFIDs. Nogales is the first southern border port to get the technology.

The two-week project will take Mariposa lanes down from four to three, but two CBP officers will be working each lane to expedite inspections, Hope said.

Also, the seven passenger lanes at the DeConcini Port of Entry in downtown Nogales will all be open during the construction. The closures will only be Mondays through Fridays.

Once the Mariposa RFIDs are installed, CBP will begin construction at the DeConcini port, likely in October.

The RFIDs are able to read an embedded chip in certain travel documents, such as the Sentri cards or Passport cards, said Brian Levin, a CBP spokesman.

When a traveler gets within 25 feet of the port of entry, the RFID can read the chip number and look up all the information on the passenger and send it to the inspection booth before the vehicle pulls up, he said.

Currently, there are more than 8,000 documents presented to CBP officers at the ports, Levin said. Beginning June 2009, only a handful of documents — some with the chip — will be accepted for entry into the United States.

For more information on travel documents, visit cpb.gov or www.travel.state.gov.