As of Monday, Mexican truckers have been blocking the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in protest since Abbott last week ordered state troops to stop and inspect trucks coming to Texas. Unusually large backups – some lasting 12 hours or more – have accumulated elsewhere along the approximately 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) of the Texas border. The Mexican government said Abbott’s mandate was causing “serious damage” to trade and that cross-border traffic had plummeted to one-third of normal levels. On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called Abbott’s order “unnecessary and unnecessary.” The stalemate is the result of an initiative that Abbott says is necessary to curb human trafficking and the flow of drugs. Abbott ordered the inspections as part of “unprecedented action” promised in response to the Biden government’s crackdown on a public health law restricting asylum seekers in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19. However, critics question how the inspections will achieve Abbott’s goal, with business owners and experts complaining about financial losses and warning that U.S. grocery buyers could spot shortages immediately this week. Disappointment also extends to members of Abbott’s own party: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, called the inspections a “catastrophic policy” that has forced some trucks to travel hundreds of miles to Arizona. “I’m describing it as a crisis, because that’s not the normal way of doing business,” said Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, whose county includes the Far Light Bridge. “You are talking about billions of dollars. “When you stop this process, I mean, there are many, many, many, many people affected.” The shutdowns and slowdowns have sparked some of the biggest backlash to date in Abbott’s multibillion-dollar cross-border operation, which the two-year-old governor has become the cornerstone of his government. Texas has thousands of state soldiers and members of the National Guard at the border and has turned prisons into prisons for immigrants arrested on charges of state trespass. Abbott warned last week that inspections would “dramatically slow down” border traffic, but has not dealt with backups or port disruptions since. The governor scheduled a press conference for Wednesday afternoon in Laredo. In a video posted on Instagram, Nuevo Governor Leon Samuel García said he planned to meet with Abbott on Wednesday and reassure him that “he has no reason to worry about drugs or immigration.” The video showed aerial footage from Colombia’s port of entry on the Nuevo Laredo River and images from Mexican authorities inspecting trucks. He said Mexico would implement “specific checkpoints” on Thursday “to show that there is not a single trailer that carries either of the two problems we know concern it.” Holidays in some of the world’s busiest international trade ports could pose an economic and political threat to Abbott, which is seeking a third term in November. Democrat Beto O’Rourke, the former presidential candidate running against Abbott, said during a stop in Far Light on Tuesday that inspections were doing nothing to stem the flow of migrants and exacerbate supply chain problems. . With him was Joe Arevalo, owner of Keystone Cold, a cold storage facility on the border. He said that although the Texas military always inspected certain trucks crossing the border, they “never, ever kept a complete system or a complete supply chain.” An estimated 3,000 trucks cross the Pharr Bridge on a normal day, according to the National Freight Chamber. The bridge is the largest land port for products such as green leafy vegetables entering the US Mexico supplies about two-thirds of the products sold in Texas. “We are living a nightmare and we are already suffering from a very sensitive supply chain from the pandemic and we are trying to renew the business,” Arevalo said. The additional inspections are being carried out by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which said Monday had inspected more than 3,400 commercial vehicles and put more than 800 “out of order” for offenses involving defective brakes, tires and lighting. He made no mention of whether the checks identified immigrants or drugs. Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator and president of the Border Industrial Association, said the protests cost businesses millions of dollars a day. “It’s going to affect us all, all of us in the United States. “Your car parts will be delivered late, your computer – if you ordered a Dell or HP tablet, they will be disrupted.” Ed Anderson, a professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, compared the holidays to those caused by a trucking ban in Canada in February that forced car factories on both sides of the border to shut down or cut production. . Anderson said consumers are likely to start seeing the effects by the end of this week, if not earlier. “Either prices will go up or the shelves will be low,” he said.
Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado. Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this exhibition.
