Local lawmakers and business leaders spoke out Friday morning to urge President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to make critical border infrastructure a priority.
Representatives Susan Davis, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas want the President's budget to include the money California needs for making the border crossing as efficient as possible.
They say if the final two phases of the revamp of the San Ysidro Port of Entry isn’t funded, San Diego will lose out on the marriage of booming business possibilities, on both sides of the border because of long wait times.
"You’re going to see four to five hour waits on this border and that's absolutely intolerable,” said Vargas.
“I know I shouldn't say it because the chamber always gets mad and everybody else gets mad when I say it but that is what's going to happen unless we say we can't have these cuts, we cannot have these cuts."
Lawmakers said the money for the infrastructure needs must be included in Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget – especially since sequestration could limit the number of border patrol officers which could also increase wait times.
