A shopper crosses Paulin Avenue near Second Street on Monday in Calexico. Calexico merchants have expressed concern over a substantial decline in sales and in numbers of shoppers from across the border. (Joselito Villero) |
The 7.5 million drop in border crossings by Mexican citizens in the past three years has had a wide ripple effect in Imperial County.
The decrease reported by the Centro de Estudios Economicos del Sector Empresarial de Mexicali is believed by most of those interviewed to be caused by border delays, including Ad Hoc Committee for Border Issues chairman Carlton Hargrave.
“We all understand that border security is important but there has to be a happy medium with border security and commerce and trade, and that part of the equation has been lost,” he said.
Hargrave, who owns Hometown Family Style Buffet, said his own business has decreased drastically.
“The border is controlled by the federal government but the federal government is not the one affected by this; the regional and local are those affected by it,” he said.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Hildy Carrillo said Washington, D.C., believes that the longer the lines are, the more secure the area. She said after the recession businesses suffered but things are worse now.
“Businesses started changing to accommodate them so their money could stretch, but that’s not even happening anymore because they stopped coming,” she said.
When asked how his restaurant’s business has been affected by the drop, Fiesta Restaurant owner Cipriano Nevarrez said, “what business?”
Nevarrez said his restaurant’s business has dropped about 75 percent and these days he’s just trying to stay in the game.
Many downtown stores are particularly suffering.
Payless ShoeSource manager Felipe Bejarano said the store’s business has dropped about 20 percent.
5-7-9 manager Liz Flores said her store’s business has dropped about 40 percent, and Morris Reisin, Sports International owner and Calexico Business Improvement District vice president, said his business was down 80 percent at one time.
He also said his clientele has changed. Before, he said, 60 percent of his customers were from Mexicali and now about 30 percent are from across the border.
“People want to buy but they don’t want to come out here,” he said, adding that as a result he has started wholesale into Mexico.
Though downtown businesses have been hit hard, Carrillo said Calexico business has been hit as a whole, particularly restaurants and retail. Chamber of Commerce members are down from more than 500 to 300 in the last three years.
El Centro Chamber of Commerce Director Cathy Kennerson said El Centro has been hit as well. She said sales tax has decreased by 9 percent in the last year, and though how much of that is determined by the decrease in border crossings is unknown, it has certainly affected business.
A 2007 study conducted by HDR/HLB Decision Economics Inc. showed that Imperial County had lost $276 million in business output and $102 million in labor income from a reduction in personal trips because of border delays, and if delays at the Mexicali-Calexico border kept growing economic losses would more than double by 2016.
>> Staff Writer Sarah Horne can be reached at shorne@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3435.
By the numbers
25,689,283 Mexican border crossers in 2007
18,172,184 Mexican border crossers in 2010
10.4 percent annual drop through Mexicali ports
The decrease reported by the Centro de Estudios Economicos del Sector Empresarial de Mexicali is believed by most of those interviewed to be caused by border delays, including Ad Hoc Committee for Border Issues chairman Carlton Hargrave.
“We all understand that border security is important but there has to be a happy medium with border security and commerce and trade, and that part of the equation has been lost,” he said.
Hargrave, who owns Hometown Family Style Buffet, said his own business has decreased drastically.
“The border is controlled by the federal government but the federal government is not the one affected by this; the regional and local are those affected by it,” he said.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Hildy Carrillo said Washington, D.C., believes that the longer the lines are, the more secure the area. She said after the recession businesses suffered but things are worse now.
“Businesses started changing to accommodate them so their money could stretch, but that’s not even happening anymore because they stopped coming,” she said.
When asked how his restaurant’s business has been affected by the drop, Fiesta Restaurant owner Cipriano Nevarrez said, “what business?”
Nevarrez said his restaurant’s business has dropped about 75 percent and these days he’s just trying to stay in the game.
Many downtown stores are particularly suffering.
Payless ShoeSource manager Felipe Bejarano said the store’s business has dropped about 20 percent.
5-7-9 manager Liz Flores said her store’s business has dropped about 40 percent, and Morris Reisin, Sports International owner and Calexico Business Improvement District vice president, said his business was down 80 percent at one time.
He also said his clientele has changed. Before, he said, 60 percent of his customers were from Mexicali and now about 30 percent are from across the border.
“People want to buy but they don’t want to come out here,” he said, adding that as a result he has started wholesale into Mexico.
Though downtown businesses have been hit hard, Carrillo said Calexico business has been hit as a whole, particularly restaurants and retail. Chamber of Commerce members are down from more than 500 to 300 in the last three years.
El Centro Chamber of Commerce Director Cathy Kennerson said El Centro has been hit as well. She said sales tax has decreased by 9 percent in the last year, and though how much of that is determined by the decrease in border crossings is unknown, it has certainly affected business.
A 2007 study conducted by HDR/HLB Decision Economics Inc. showed that Imperial County had lost $276 million in business output and $102 million in labor income from a reduction in personal trips because of border delays, and if delays at the Mexicali-Calexico border kept growing economic losses would more than double by 2016.
>> Staff Writer Sarah Horne can be reached at shorne@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3435.
By the numbers
25,689,283 Mexican border crossers in 2007
18,172,184 Mexican border crossers in 2010
10.4 percent annual drop through Mexicali ports
