Question one for 2028: will you build a border that works?

Part one of six questions every 2028 candidate must answer.

I have spent most of my life at the border. I grew up in Nogales, served as its mayor, and later ran the day to day of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as chief of staff. So when candidates start lining up for 2028, my first question is simple: will you build a border that works?

A border that works is not a slogan. It is a port of entry that opens every lane when the trucks are lined up. It is a CBP officer at every booth instead of a closed lane and a two hour wait. It is scanning technology that catches fentanyl without stopping every family car for inspection.

The numbers make the case. From 2018 through 2024, more than 92 percent of the fentanyl CBP seized was caught at a port of entry or a Border Patrol checkpoint, hidden among legitimate traffic, according to CBP data analyzed by the American Immigration Council. Security and commerce happen in the same lane, so if you neglect one, you fail at both.

Yet our ports are short of people. By CBP's own workload staffing model, the officers' union told the Senate last year, ports of entry need at least 5,850 more CBP officers right now. The budget request funded a fraction of that.

For years Washington has treated the ports as an afterthought. The money and the speeches go to the space between them, while the places where trade, travel and smuggling meet run on aging infrastructure and too few officers. Every hour a truck waits at the line costs a farmer in Sonora, a manufacturer in Arizona and a family at the grocery store. Delay is a tax, and border communities pay it first.

I saw what works. When we invested in people, technology and partnership with Mexican customs, we moved more traffic and stopped more contraband at the same time. That is the point: secure and humane are not opposites. A professional, well staffed, modern border protects the country and keeps the North American economy moving.

What I want to hear from every 2028 candidate

• Fully staff our ports of entry, so no lane sits closed for lack of officers.

• Modernize the infrastructure and scanning at our busiest crossings, starting with the ones carrying the most trade.

• Build joint inspection with Mexico, so cargo is cleared once, securely, not twice.

• Listen to border mayors, sheriffs and business owners, who know these crossings better than any consultant in Washington.

Voters on the border just showed they reward results over rhetoric. The candidate who wants their trust in 2028 should start here.

Will you build a border that works?

Next week: trade as national security. Read all six questions here.