The traffic jam on the Texas-Mexico border finally began to ease Thursday after nearly a week, as Gov. Greg Abbott eased an immigration measure that caused traffic jams at some of the commercial ports. busiest in the world, with heavy economic losses as a result.
“There is now a sense of urgency to reach agreements that didn’t exist before,” Abbott said.
The Republican governor, who allowed commercial trucks to stand in long lines in Mexico for several days after requiring them to undergo additional inspections in Texas, lifted that order for bridges in El Paso and other cities after announcing a new safety agreement. with the Mexican state of Chihuahua, with which it shares a border.
It is still not a complete reversal of the measure that Abbott implemented on April 6 as part of his current dispute with the administration of President Joe Biden over the flow of immigrants and drugs. Additional lengthy inspections at other points along the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) stretch of Texas will continue, Abbott says, until similar agreements are finalized with other Mexican states.
But the pact with the governor of Chihuahua María Campos Galván, who accompanied Abbott for the announcement at the state Capitol, significantly unblocks traffic on the border between Mexico and Texas, whose paralysis gave rise to warnings of price increases for US consumers and product shortages.
“People like me who buy millions of dollars worth of produce a week are starting to slow down their purchases for other regions of the country,” said Brent Erenwert, general manager of Brothers Produce in Houston, which relies heavily on imports from Mexico. .
The inspections Abbott ordered were in response to the Biden administration’s announcement last month that it would end a public health law that has limited asylum claims at the border for the express purpose of preventing the spread of COVID. -19. Once that happens, the number of migrants to the United States is expected to increase.
Thursday was the second day in a row that Abbott has withdrawn inspections of some bridges, beginning Wednesday with Laredo, which was the busiest port for truckloads entering the United States last year.
Traffic into Texas on the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, where more agricultural products cross than any other land port in the United States, has also resumed after days of protests by Mexican truckers.
A customs agency in Mexico, the Reynosa Customs Agents Association, estimated Thursday that $7 million a day was lost on the Pharr-Reynosa bridge.
Agreements between Abbott and Mexican governors have varied thus far.
Nuevo León Governor Samuel García told Abbott that his entity would set up checkpoints and conduct patrols. As for Chihuahua, Galván presented a security plan that, he assured, is in the implementation stage and that includes agreements to share intelligence captured by security cameras and other technologies. At the moment it is unknown if the Campos Galván plan has already been launched.
Republican Sid Miller, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner who has urged Abbott to reverse the inspection order, said Thursday that he was told by a major agricultural company that 100 trucks that were sent to Mexico for deliveries have been unable to return due to traffic jams. .
He questioned what the achievements of the measure were, and in the case of Abbott’s agreement with Nuevo León, he said that it did not appear to be substantial.
“They’re basically going to leave everything to good faith,” Miller said. “There is no one to enforce it, there are no consequences if they do not.”
The White House, the Mexican government, trade groups and struggling companies have strongly criticized the additional inspections, calling them redundant and an added burden on an already fragile supply chain.
Abbott’s border inspections come at a time when US supply chains are overwhelmed. A surge in consumer demand, the result of a surprisingly quick recovery from the devastating recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, caught businesses by surprise, resulting in bottlenecks at factories, ports and harbors. load. It has also pushed up prices, contributing to the highest inflation in 40 years.
COVID-19-related factory closures in China and the rising costs of shipping products across the Pacific Ocean have caused many businesses to turn to Mexico, where there is no ocean to cross and no political or trade disputes. they have Washington and Beijing.
“Right now, many companies are looking to Mexico as a way to avoid ocean dependency,” said Bindiya Vakil, managing director of supply chain consultancy Resilnc. “If I were one of those companies, and I see these new regulations at the Texas border, I would be really worried because this means additional delays, and that was supposed to be my solution, to go to Mexico and avoid this whole ocean.”
The US-Mexico border is vital to the US economy. Last year, the United States imported $390.7 billion worth of goods from Mexico, the second largest amount, second only to China.
But even if inspections are lifted, Abbott says he will continue to bus migrants to Washington, DC, in what he says is a message to President Biden.
“If you’re not going to come to the border, we’ll take you to the border,” Abbott said.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Commissioner Chris Magnus said Thursday that Abbott was moving migrants without “proper coordination” with the federal government. The first bus arrived Wednesday, and Abbott says more are on the way.
___
Associated Press reporters Paul Wiseman, in Martinsburg, West Virginia; María Verza, in Mexico City; and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
–
