Holiday Traffic Snarls Border Crossing

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 22, 2006 at 1:10 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Holiday traffic clogged the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings Wednesday. Long lines are expected on and off throughout the weekend. KPBS Border Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

Lea Perez from Chula Vista finished her last bite of popsicle as she inched forward in the line of 400 cars at the San Ysidro border crossing.

Perez laughs she’s eaten everything – churros, ice cream, popsicles – and she doesn’t know what to choose next to make the time pass more easily. She’s waited for more than three hours and had about 40 minutes more. She’d gone to Tijuana to pick up her niece so they can fly to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving.

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Perez says U.S. Customs agents need to know who’s crossing the border. But she says the lines are ridiculous.

Even so, Perez says she has to cross. She says it’s the price you pay to see your family. Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

See stories by Amy Isackson