LAREDO, Texas (Border Report) — A busy Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas is undergoing a renovation and expansion that could soon make it the largest in the nation.
Congress has approved $15 million to begin expanding the checkpoint on Interstate 35 about 30 miles north of Laredo, in a heavily trafficked corridor that leads from the border to San Antonio, according to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
The funding was part of Homeland Security’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget. Of it, $10 million will go to creating what Cuellar calls “an immediate relief valve that is for noncommercial vehicles,” and $5 million toward designing and land acquisition of 75 acres for the expansion, he said.
When completed, the checkpoint will add nine commercial truck inspection lanes and two additional secondary inspection lanes, as well as an impound lot, warehouse, canine facilities, and a special passenger vehicle loop to facilitate traffic flow.
“The latest technology will be used in this so we can handle the largest amount of trucks of any other checkpoint in the whole country,” Cuellar recently told Border Report. “This will be the largest checkpoint in the country.”
The checkpoint is commonly called “Checkpoint Charley” and is located on the northbound lanes of the busy interstate.
Cuellar says renovations are necessary because too often the checkpoint gets so backed up that it impedes highway traffic, prompting Border Patrol agents to wave dozens of vehicles and trucks through in what the agency calls “flushes” to reduce collisions.
The agency says transnational criminal organizations are aware of the “flushing” methods and take advantage of peak traffic times to try to illegally cross migrants north of the checkpoint area.
In June 2022, an 18-wheeler truck that came from Laredo with dozens of migrants illegally smuggled into its cargo hold was waved through Checkpoint Charley during a flush. The same truck was abandoned in San Antonio before 53 migrants died trapped in the back in what is the deadliest smuggling incident in U.S. history so far.
“They wave trucks without checking, and it happened to be that that particular trailer had migrants that got waved through,” Cuellar said. “The people died in the San Antonio area and we want to prevent that.”
Cuellar says the larger facility will have the latest technology, including non-intrusive inspection technology to scan trucks and vehicles to ensure there isn’t anything in the cargo holds.
He says additional Border Patrol agents also will be hired to staff the larger station.
The current checkpoint was built in 2006 and designed for inspections of 4,000 vehicles daily. But according to the Department of Homeland Security, agents routinely inspect over 17,000 vehicles daily, and upwards of 20,000 vehicles in many instances.
Currently, the checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281 near the rural South Texas town of Falfurrias is the largest in the nation with separate truck inspection bays and a large secondary inspection area.
But once completed, Checkpoint Charley should eclipse it, Cuellar says.
Additional funds of about $150 million will be needed, however, in order to complete the renovations.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
