Abbott to Halt Some Truck Inspections on Border Snarl
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Texas will halt some vehicle inspections at the U.S.-Mexico border after a protest against Gov. Greg Abbott’s crackdown provoked protests that halted some crucial food and equipment shipments.
Abbott said April 13 that the state government of Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico agreed to conduct safety inspections before U.S.-bound trucks reach the border. The inspections will continue in other sectors of the U.S.-Mexico line. Abbott said he acted in response to what he called U.S. President Joe Biden’s failure to repel undocumented migration and drug smuggling.
“The only way to unclog the border is for Biden to do his job and secure the border,” Abbott said during a joint press conference with Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel Alejandro Garcia Sepulveda in Laredo.
Garcia Sepulveda said inspections on the Mexican side of the border began April 12.
Understand this, no port of entry has more truck traffic in America than Laredo. With almost 2.6M trucks coming through annually, it is almost double the 2nd busiest US port (Detroit), according to U.S. DOT. No other port along Mexico border is over 1Mhttps://t.co/JOgr7FcdiF — Jeremy Wallace (@JeremySWallace) April 12, 2022
“Our 14-kilometer border with Texas will be continuously patrolled by our police,” he added.
Abbott is walking back one of the cornerstones of his border-security platform just a week after its unveiling. The two-term Republican last week said he’d increase inspections of Mexican commercial vehicles to improve highway safety and combat an expected surge in undocumented immigration.
But the inspections created hourslong delays at a border that handles more than $400 billion in trade annually, prompting Mexican truckers to block a key bridge in protest. Abbott has been criticized on both sides of the border by politicians and business groups who said the move was a political stunt with potentially serious economic consequences.
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