AUSTIN, Texas — State troopers will stop inspecting incoming trucks in a second region of the state’s international border following new concessions to Texas‘s demands by a Mexican state, though inspections will continue across half of Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott agreed Thursday evening to cease inspections of commercial vehicles entering through West Texas in return for the Mexican state of Chihuahua agreeing to significantly boost security on its side of the border.
“This is a demonstration of commitment from a strong governor who is working collaboratively with the state of Texas, and I’m proud to sign the agreement with her at this time,” Abbott said during the joint press conference.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT IS JUST DOING THE JOB THAT BIDEN WON’T DO
Chihuahua Gov. Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan presented Abbott with new strategies to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the border between ports of entry. Abbott said it was the “best border security plan that I’ve seen from any governor from Mexico.”
Texas and Chihuahua are investing more than $200 million into the policy, Campos Galvan said. The investments will include drones to patrol the border and artificial intelligence databases connected to the driver’s license registry, Abbott confirmed.
Of the four Mexican states that border Texas, just Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon have worked with Abbott to stop the U.S. inspections. Governors from Tamaulipas and Coahuila reached out to Texas earlier this week and are in talks about ending the inspections pending cooperation, Abbott said Thursday.
Abbott announced the truck inspections April 6, days after the Biden administration said it would soon stop immediately expelling illegal immigrants who came across the southern border, a policy enacted when the coronavirus pandemic began two years ago. The inspections were meant to detect people or drugs being smuggled into the United States, though they duplicated federal inspections.
Troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety were tasked with conducting safety checks on all trucks arriving in roughly two dozen locations up and down the state’s border. Of the 2,685 trucks inspected by Sunday, 646 were placed out of service for “serious safety violations,” including defective brakes, tires, and lighting, CNN reported.
Delays topped 10 hours by Tuesday as trucks were rerouted to other ports of entry, some hundreds of miles west, prompting criticism from lawmakers, including Republicans.
Two House Democrats with districts in South Texas, Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, wrote separate letters to Abbott warning him of the negative implications delays would cause to the supply chain.
“A recent study conducted by Texas A&M found that imported fresh produce from Mexico employs approximately 8,000 Texans and contributes $850 million to our state’s economy,” wrote Gonzalez, whose district includes Pharr. “Your actions have thus far held up $30 million of produce according to the Texas International Produce Association.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a statement late Tuesday defending its own inspections and dubbing Abbott’s efforts “unnecessary.”
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Over the past week, federal port officers in the eastern half of Texas have stopped $17 million worth of drugs being transported into the U.S., CBP said.
“Your duplicative mechanical inspections have been costly to the local, state, and national economies,” Cuellar wrote in a letter to Abbott. “None of the violations from these inspections involve the smuggling of drugs or people. These inspections have resulted in a significant increase in commercial wait times at ports of entry.”
