by Staff Reporter | Jun 18, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The federal government says delays are bound to occur with impending construction on Arizona’s second-busiest border entry point.
The 16-acre San Luis I Land Port of Entry, established in 1984, will undergo another series of renovations beginning June 20 to improve its operations and infrastructure. Construction on this leg of the project will last approximately four to five months per Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The forthcoming construction is part of a greater $356 million expansion and modernization project which pledges to make San Luis I Land Port of Entry an “eco-friendly gateway” as the “first fully electric, net-zero energy land port of entry” in the country. Construction work on the port of entry began in 2023 and is scheduled to conclude in the spring of 2029.
The port expansion and modernization project was announced in 2024 under former President Joe Biden as a major “green expansion” initiative for his Investing in America agenda. Nearly $100 million of the total project funding came from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies for “low-embodied carbon construction materials and emerging and sustainable technologies.”
IRA funds also went to 37 other land port of entry projects. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) both endorsed the project and its net-zero approach.
The IRA appropriated $3.4 billion for GSA to institute net-zero emissions infrastructure reforms in federal facilities across America by 2045.
The General Services Administration (GSA) has stated in its public project summary for the port of entry that the current infrastructure has proven inadequate to handle traffic volumes and CBP mission requirements.
“The modernization and expansion project will improve efficiencies and traffic flows, reduce wait times, increase CBP processing capacity and operational security by effectively deploying the latest technology to identify high risk activity and shipments and combat drug trafficking,” stated the GSA.
In March, the GSA announced the San Luis I Land Port of Entry opened 16 new northbound vehicle lanes, doubling the previous capacity, covered with two shade canopies spanning 16,000 square feet.
The expansion and modernization project also includes a secondary vehicle processing area, additional pedestrian inspection lanes, and a new administrative facility. It further expands southbound privately owned vehicle operations with upgraded primary and secondary inspection and processing buildings, as well as expanded employee parking.
Last July, the Office of the Inspector General notified the GSA that contractors who hadn’t undergone the required security screening had worked on the port of entry expansion and modernization project.
Travelers seeking passage through the San Luis I Land Port of Entry should review border wait times on the CBP website or the mobile app, Border Wait Times.
The San Luis I Land Port of Entry encounters three million drivers and 2.5 million pedestrians annually, per GSA data.
The GSA awarded the design-build contract for the expansion and modernization effort to Hensel Phelps Construction Company in 2022, which is based out of Colorado and one of the biggest general contractors and construction managers nationwide.
Community stakeholder and civic leader briefings on the port of entry occurred in the spring of 2024.
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by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Feb 20, 2026 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
It feels like just about everywhere you turn, politicians are inventing new ways to yank more money out of your wallet. There are property taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, and more. We’ve even seen cities and towns push their own tax, utility rate, and “fee” increases. (How are those water bills treating you, Gilbert?) And now, some states—like California and Massachusetts—are pursuing a tax that would charge you a fee for every single mile you travel in your vehicle.
So much for affordability.
Earlier this month, California’s legislature advanced AB 1421. If passed and signed by Governor Newsom, this bill would create a “road user charge” pay-per-mile system for our neighbors to the west. It also includes studying how to capture out-of-state vehicles as well in case you thought your trip to Disneyland couldn’t get any more expensive.
If you don’t think such a tax is possible, think again…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Jan 8, 2026 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Arizona has hardly had an opportunity to recover from the aftershocks of Biden-omics. The trillions of dollars injected into the economy through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act continue to work their way through the system in the form of higher prices and eroded purchasing power. Open-border policies that expanded the labor supply at the lower and middle ends of the wage scale have depressed wages. And the Biden Administration’s unprecedented regulatory burden on industry, a nearly $2 trillion drag on the economy, will take far longer than a year to unwind and correct.
Unfortunately for Arizona, efforts to fix these problems at the federal level cannot be fully realized here at home because Katie Hobbs remains our Governor.
Hobbs has harmed Arizona’s recovery, overseeing a massive fall from 4th in the nation in job growth to 47th. She inherited a booming local economy after a Republican legislature and Governor ushered in a 2.5 percent income tax, incentivized entrepreneurs and small businesses, prioritized deregulation, and expanded choice and freedom in education. Yet Hobbs has managed to squander that opportunity. In fact, it takes a special skill set to be perfectly set up for success and then drive a working model into the ground.
And Hobbs knows she’s to blame. That’s why she’s now desperately trying to reinvent herself by pushing Trump-esque tax cut rhetoric while clinging to the same big-spending, high-tax policies that caused the damage in the first place. At her core, she remains a California-style Democrat who would rather govern Newsom-style than embrace the Republican solutions that actually work. That’s why, despite a Republican legislature that has delivered tax relief bills, more disciplined budgets, and common-sense deregulation, she has earned a reputation as the veto queen.
As a result, Arizonans are dealing with real affordability woes, and they best not hinge their hopes on Hobbs.
Despite responsible budgeting and repeated tax relief efforts by Republican lawmakers, affordability pressures continue to mount. Taxes are creeping higher at every level of government. Utility bills have surged. Housing costs are outpacing wage growth. And programs intended to help struggling families are losing billions to fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
That is why the 2026 legislative session must focus on Affordable Arizona…
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Dec 17, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
Our country is facing an energy crisis. No, not because of new demand from data centers or AI. Instead, it’s because utilities in nearly every state, due to government imposed “renewable” mandates, self-imposed mandates, and the supercharging of the Green New Scam under the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” have been shutting down vital coal resources and building out almost exclusively intermittent and costly resources like solar, wind, and battery storage.
President Trump understands this, and that is why on day one of his administration, he declared an Energy Emergency. Then, a few months later, the President signed a trio of Executive Orders designed to keep our “beautiful, clean coal” burning and providing the reliable, baseload, and affordable electricity Americans have benefited from for generations. Those orders have been used to keep coal generation online that was slated to shut down in Michigan and will potentially keep two units operating that were scheduled to shut down in Colorado this December. In Arizona, however, the Cholla Power Plant in Navajo County was shuttered by the utility just weeks after President Trump explicitly called out the plant for saving in a press conference.
Unlike states with green mandates, Arizona essentially has none. Instead, our utilities, like many around the country, have self-imposed commitments to go “Net Zero” by 2050. To meet that target, they have planned to shut down all coal generation in the state by 2032 and plan to build out almost exclusively solar, wind, and battery storage to meet an expected explosive growth in demand, at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. So, it is no surprise that like much of the rest of the country, Arizona is facing an energy crisis.
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Sep 10, 2025 | Opinion
By the Arizona Free Enterprise Club |
It was Biden’s biggest “accomplishment.” The so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which he later admitted had nothing to do with inflation (it actually did, just not in the direction the name suggested) but was really about dumping billions (really trillions) into subsidizing the green new scam. It was the biggest acceleration towards the “Net Zero” climate scam resulting in utilities across the country, especially here in Arizona, spamming the grid with unreliable energy generation such as solar, wind, and battery storage, driving up rates for utility customers while shattering reliability.
And President Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would terminate it on day one, instead committing to unleash American energy dominance, “drill, baby, drill”, and slash harmful regulations standing in the way of building affordable baseload generation. The recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill” was the avenue to do the first.
What finally made it through Congress and was signed into law on July 4th terminated tax credits for electric vehicles, “energy efficient” home improvements, and residential solar this year. As for the much larger credits, those subsidizing grid scale solar and wind farms, it’s much more complicated.
>>> CONTINUE READING >>>
