Different parties within the US Government are arguing about how to handle border security and lots of normal people are caught in the middle. This particular argument is causing a huge queue of commercial trucks to wait for hours at the border while new checkpoints set up by Texas police conduct safety checks in addition to the normal border security already in place. The move has caused some Mexican truck drivers to block other borders in protest.
According to the Texas Tribune, “troopers appear to be checking every commercial vehicle that crosses select international bridges, with each inspection taking between 45 minutes and an hour.”
This is in direct response to a new policy put in place by Texas governor Greg Abbott who says he’s just trying to curtail the flow of drugs and human trafficking into the country. “We will use any and all lawful powers to curtail the flow of drugs, human traffickers, illegal immigrants, weapons, and other contraband into Texas,” he said.
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NEW: Another protest of Gov. Greg Abbott’s new vehicle inspections at the border has emerged just over the Texas-Mexico border from El Paso, also slowing commercial traffic there, according to Border Report. https://t.co/1dlsrMfhot
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) April 12, 2022
According to the Customs and Border Protection department, “wait times at some border crossings exceeded five hours and commercial traffic dropped by as much as 60 percent. The longer than average wait times – and the subsequent supply chain disruptions – are unrelated to CBP screening activities and are due to additional and unnecessary inspections being conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) at the order of the Governor of Texas.”
For its part, the White House says that the “unnecessary and redundant” inspections have disrupted food and automobile supply chains. Tens of billions of dollars worth of auto parts come from Mexico and feed into American auto factories each year so this slowdown couldn’t come at a worse time. The industry is already struggling to meet demand thanks to the chip shortage and other factors.
Two major bridges that support trade have been totally blocked by Mexican truckers in protest of the new Texas policy. The Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge is one of the pair and sees about 3,000 commercial crossings each day under normal circumstances. That number has dropped to less than 1,000 on average and on some days close to 500. No solution is on the horizon as of this writing.