Ju rez, are beginning to drive a bit further to cross the border at the San Jer nimo-San Teresa, NM port. About 1,400 cars and 120 commercial trucks per week enter the US at Santa Teresa. Furthermore, Mexican shoppers have easy access to the Sunland Park Mall in El Paso and truck drivers have a short, easy drive on a good, uncrowded, new road to Highway I-10. In Columbus, NM, where roughly 7,500 private vehicles per week come into the US, one in ten of these vehicles is sent for secondary inspection according to Customs' monthly statistics. In Santa Teresa about two thirds of vehicles receive secondary inspection.
Primary inspection occurs when a vehicle approaches the first agent at a border booth.
At this time the agent will ask the vehicle occupants if they are US citizens and if they are bringing anything from Mexico. Based upon suspicion an agent can then decide whether or not to send a vehicle for secondary inspection, according to Acosta. An agent may also look for new upholstery or carpet in a car or the smell of carpet glue or marijuana, all amateur flaws in the concealment of drugs in auto compartments. One other factor that may help agents determine a line of questioning or reasoning in how they deal with vehicles and passengers is that cameras take photos of license plates and present them to the primary agent as a vehicle pulls up to the border. While Customs does not comment on what information is made available along with the plate numbers, it is believed that the agent is presented with the vehicle's crossing history.