© AP
TEXAS-BORDER DELAYS
The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbottrevoked on Friday the truck inspection order that obstructed the traffic of commercial vehicles on the border between the United States and Mexicofollowing a week of strong repercussions and fears of serious economic losses.
The Republican governor withdrew his rules requiring all commercial trucks coming from Mexico to undergo additional inspections for the express purpose of stemming the flow of migrants and drugs, a move that sharpened his dispute with the president’s administration. Joe Biden on immigration policy.
Some truckers reported waiting more than 30 hours to cross. Others blocked one of the world’s busiest commercial bridges in protest.
Abbott, who will seek re-election in November and who has made the border his main issue, completely lifted the inspections following reaching agreements with neighboring Mexican states, which, according to him, outline new commitments on border security. The latest was signed on Friday with the governor of Tamaulipas, who this week said the inspections were excessively rigorous and wreaking havoc.
When Abbott first ordered the inspections, he did not say that lifting them was conditional on those agreements with Mexico.
Pressure grew for Abbott to back down as the gridlock at the border deepened and discontent grew. The American Truckers Association called the inspections “wholly flawed, redundant and add considerable weight to an already troubled supply chain.”
The US-Mexico border is crucial to the US economy, and much of it is in Texas: roughly 1,200 miles, more than any other state. Last year, the United States imported products worth 390.7 billion dollars from Mexico, a figure second only to China.
Abbott began the inspections following the Biden administration said restrictions on asylum claims at the border that were imposed by the pandemic would be lifted on May 23. He called the inspections a “zero tolerance policy for unsafe vehicles” brought in by migrants. He then announced that Texas would take several steps in response to the end of asylum restrictions, as the latter is expected to cause an increase in the number of migrants arriving at the border.
State troopers inspected more than 6,000 commercial vehicles in the past week, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Nearly one in four trucks was pulled off the road for what the agency described as serious violations that included faulty tires and brakes.
The agency did not mention that the inspections found migrants or drugs.
