Texas Ends Rule That Left Trucks Waiting For Hours To Cross Mexico Border

Topline

After eight days, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) Friday repealed an order requiring enhanced inspections of vehicles entering the state through the Mexico border—a measure Abbott said was necessary to crack down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling, but which reportedly left some truckers waiting over 30 hours to cross and disrupted supply chains.

Key Facts

Abbott repealed the order just hours after signing memoranda with the governors of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila agreeing to work cooperatively to cut down on drug smuggling and illegal immigration into the U.S.

Wednesday, Abbott signed a similar memorandum with the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León, agreeing to target drug smuggling and illegal immigration, but setting forth few quantifiable terms.

Abbott framed the enhanced inspection rule as a response to the Biden Administration’s plan to end Title 42 border restrictions May 23, which Abbott claimed would result in a flood of drugs, human traffickers and weapons entering Texas.

Abbott’s enhanced vehicle inspections led to snarls of hundreds of trucks building up on the Mexican side of the border, and provoked protests by truckers who blockaded bridges near El Paso and Pharr, Texas.

The order was criticized as unnecessary and counterproductive by Customs and Border Protection and by the administration, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki remarking that the order had disrupted supply chains and raised commodity prices across the U.S.

Key Background

Abbott, who is up for re-election in November, has made border security a central plank of his platform. Wednesday, Abbott sent a bus of migrants from the Texas-Mexico border to Washington, D.C., where they were dropped off near the Capitol, in what he said was a response to the administration’s “open-border” policy. The White House dismissed this gesture as a publicity stunt. Abbott has also pursued workarounds allowing Texas to participate in immigration enforcement, such as directing state and local police to arrest migrants for misdemeanor trespassing. Though migration policy remains one of the most partisan issues in the U.S., Abbott’s enhanced vehicle inspection rule drew bipartisan condemnation, with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Trump-endorsed Republican, accusing Abbott of damaging the economy with useless “political theater.” After the order went into effect, commercial traffic plummeted by up to 70% at some border ports, the White House said.

Tangent

Title 42 of the U.S. Code includes regulations dealing with public health and social welfare, including a section allowing the surgeon general to pause imports and immigration from certain places to prevent the spread of disease. The Trump Administration employed this rule to summarily turn away or expel migrants, a policy that the Biden Administration has preserved. Title 42 has been used to expel more than 1.7 million people, most of whom were returned to Mexico or their countries of origin without an opportunity to claim asylum in the U.S., Al Jazeera reported. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers have urged Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to end Title 42 expulsions as soon as possible, arguing that the policy, which was intended to curb the spread of disease, put migrants at greater risk of catching Covid-19. April 1, the administration announced that Title 42 expulsions would end May 23, using the intervening weeks to beef up its program to vaccinate migrants at the border.

Big Number

$388 billion. That’s how much the U.S. imported from Mexico in goods and services during 2019, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Further Reading

“Bad News For Berry, Avocado, Tomato, Lime Prices With Mexican Truck Inspections” (Forbes)