Last week, Texas Gov Greg. Abbott ordered more thorough inspections of trucks entering and leaving the United States. The reason he gave was the effort to stem the flow of illegal aliens coming into the U.S. as well as the surge of drugs entering the country from Mexico.
The real reason was entirely political: to make life very uncomfortable for Joe Biden by publicizing his administration’s failures to protect the people in Texas and other border states from the uncontrolled wave of immigrants about to overrun the border when the public health rule known as Title 42 is lifted next month.
All commercial traffic both into and out of Mexico has been halted at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge — the third busiest land port of entry in the country — due to @GovAbbott’s declaration that trucks be inspected by DPS after crossing & passing thru CBP inspections. pic.twitter.com/Ks9R71ht90
— Dina Arévalo (@PhotogDina) April 11, 2022
In response to long wait times at the commercial truck lanes at the Ysleta Port of Entry, truck drivers have blocked access to the lanes on the Mexican side of the border.
Their actions come hours after a similar protest at the Pharr International Bridge, first closed the Northbound commercial lanes, then the Southbound lanes as well.
Drivers have parked their trucks in the inspection area in the northbound lanes – in Juarez – with their trailers blocking the southbound lanes as well, effectively blocking all commercial traffic.
Pedestrian and personal vehicle traffic is not impacted by this protest, and continues to flow both north and southbound.
The wait times on the Mexican side of the border are at least four hours and can be as much as 12 hours. There are no bathroom facilities and little water.
“There’s a lot of traffic because they are blocking the street, you have the labor union, and truck drivers impeding traffic,” said Sergio Lopez, a truck driver who was able to cross from Juarez to El Paso after hours of waiting.
Lopez describes what the enhanced inspection was like.
“They don’t tell us anything because they ask us to get out,” said Lopez “It’s very slow here we don’t even know what’s going on they don’t let us know.”
Truckers were telling reporters at the scene they were greatly inconvenienced by the delays and worried that their deliveries of manufactured goods and other merchandise would get to their destinations late.
Abbott is hoping that the added pressure from Mexican truckers will give additional weight to his protest against the Biden administration’s plans to lift Title 42. As it stands now, Abbott’s only hope — and the only hope of those who oppose insane border policies — is an expedited hearing before the Supreme Court.
There are other points of law at stake besides immigration — international asylum laws and other American laws relating to refugees. But overriding all of these is the certainty that lifting Title 42 will begin a tidal wave of illegal immigrants that would cause a humanitarian catastrophe and threaten the peace and security of residents in border states.
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