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DOUGLAS - It is right around 5 pm on a Friday, and Douglas drivers know, it's coming. Coming into Douglas from Mexico has always meant sitting in long lines, waiting for border agents to check your car and identification. But since September, drivers have been finding themselves waiting just as long, or longer, going the other direction.

"Recently I don't understand why, It's just been really bad lately," Douglas driver, Araceli Grijalva, said. "It's been a lot of cars lately."

In fact, there are so many cars, some get stuck in the line for more than an hour. It's a trail of trucks, sedans and semis that can stretch up to a mile.

While border traffic is nothing new, the Douglas Police Department told News4 the backup to leave the country is based on a recent decision on the other side of the border.

"The Mexican government wanted to increase their enforcement along the border to try to curb the narcotics, drug trade organizations, trafficking of weapons and stolen vehicles and money," Marcus Gonzalez, Spokesperson for the Douglas Police Department, said.

Douglas Police support Mexico's aggressive crime fighting, but it makes for more accidents and road rage in, keeping officers on their toes.

Businesses in the area are also on edge, especially the ones that become inaccessible when the traffic starts to choke.

"It's a ten, fifteen minute delay on customers coming in," Ralph Robles, Assistant Manager at the Douglas Game Stop, said.

Those who work in some of the Douglas strip malls say when traffic gets really bad, it is almost impossible to get to work.

"The people that are actually going to Mexico, they don't let people in and out of the line, they keep going," Robles said.

The Douglas International Port Authority says they have heard the complaints, and now they are doing what they can to ease the flow.

"It will probably never be the 5 minute wait that we've historically had but I think we can make this more efficient once we get all the organizations together," Carlos Fernandez with the Douglas International Port Authority said.

Drivers say traffic is worst when school or work gets out, and on the weekends. One proposed solution is building a separate port of entry, solely for commercial traffic.