U.S. authorizes new livestock crossing near San Luis, Ariz.

U.S. authorizes new livestock crossing near San Luis, Ariz. The U.S. State Department has granted the Greater Yuma Port Authority authorization to proceed with construction of a new livestock border crossing facility, just over a half-mile from the present location near San Luis, Ariz.
   San Luis receives about 30,000 “light” cattle, in the range of 700 pounds each, from Mexico’s Sonora state for finishing in the U.S. Southwest. “The cattle are held just long enough to get them onto the trucks,” said Jim Chessum, administrator for the Greater Yuma Port Authority, in an interview.
   The port authority hopes to expand the entry of cattle from other Mexican states through the new facility once a U.S. Department of Agriculture rulemaking is complete. San Luis has only been able to receive Mexican-origin cattle from Sonoro, Chessum said.
   The new facility is expected to be operational in the spring of 2008.
   San Luis is also undergoing construction of a new commercial truck port, called “San Luis II,” about five miles east of the current border crossing. Once the new port is completed in 2009, truck traffic will be closed to the former crossing, which will in turn be renovated for passenger vehicle and pedestrian traffic only. “We expect all the work to be finished by 2012,” Chessum said.
   San Luis ranks 10th among all U.S. southwestern land border crossings with Mexico for both imports and exports. ' Chris Gillis