Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller calls on Abbott to end ‘catastrophic’ border inspections

AUSTIN – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller pressed the governor on Tuesday to end a new inspection policy that is snarling traffic at the border and “turning a crisis into a catastrophe.”

In a strongly worded statement, Miller warned Gov. Greg Abbott that commercial vehicles are being forced to wait up to 12 hours to enter Texas from Mexico because of the stepped-up state inspections. As a result, Miller said, produce is rotting in idling trucks and ultimately, prices could spike for consumers.

“This is not solving the border problem, it is increasing the cost of food and adding to supply chain shortages,” said Miller, a two-term Republican who is up for reelection this year. “Such a misguided program is going to quickly lead to $2.00 lemons, $5.00 avocados and worse.”

Delays of up to three days have been reported at some international bridge crossings for commercial traffic after Abbott ordered increased safety inspections of cargo trucks in an effort to locate migrants and drugs being smuggled across the border.

The traffic snarls are being exacerbated by angry truck drivers who are protesting the long waits with blockades at some ports of entry, including at ports in neighboring New Mexico where some trucks headed to avoid the Texas mess.

Miller is the most prominent Republican to take Abbott to task over the additional vehicle inspections that began at the border last week. Business leaders have for days worried the hourslong traffic delays could hurt Texas consumers because Mexico is the state’s biggest trading partner.

Mexico’s foreign ministry and leading senators on Tuesday also criticized the additional inspections, saying they jeopardize cross border trade.

Abbott’s office did not immediately return a request for comment. The Republican governor unveiled the plan April 6 in response to the Biden administration’s decision to end the public health order known as Title 42, which has been used to quickly expel migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Abbott acknowledged at the time that the additional vehicle inspections would “dramatically slow” traffic from Mexico.

Miller called on Abbott to instead support lawsuits that are seeking to force President Joe Biden to continue the Title 42 policy, which was put in place by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If the Biden administration can’t be compelled to do their job to protect the border, then we need a federal judge to compel Biden to do what is right,” Miller said.

Abbott has pushed heavily for massive expenditures to beef up border security after saying the Biden administration has failed to do so. Under his policies, 10,000 members of the Texas National Guard and officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety have been sent to the border. Abbott has also promised to help build a border wall and ordered state officials to provide buses to carry migrants from the border to Washington, D.C.

In a lengthy statement released Tuesday outlining its extensive, longstanding border inspection processes, CBP said the slowdowns have brought as much as a 60 percent drop in commercial traffic.

“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 at the order of the Governor of Texas,” the statement said.

The stepped-up safety inspections are causing a ruckus that has begun to reverberate among the Republican governor’s most steadfast allies: Republican politicians and big business. Texas and Mexico share a 1,254-mile border connected by more than 27 international crossing points, many used for commercial trade.

In 2021, there was more than $661 billion in trade between the U.S. and Mexico, according to U.S. census data. Federal Bureau of Transportation data indicates that 70% of the trucks with cargo that enter the U.S. do so through Texas.

Business leaders, trade experts and border politicians noted that federal officials already routinely inspect commercial vehicles as they cross the border and warned that additional inspections would cost time and money.

Each loaded truck that passes from Mexico to the U.S. already goes through four security filters in Texas: one by Customs and Border Protection; one by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Texas Department of Transportation; the one by the Texas Department of Public Safety; and one more about 30 miles past the border at checkpoints manned by the CBP and the Border Patrol.

In the Rio Grande Valley, the Pharr bridge remained closed to all commercial traffic on Tuesday as truckers continued to protest Abbott’s stepped-up inspections with a full-on blockade. Their protest began after lines at the bridge began to stretch back for miles into Reynosa due to the increased safety inspections by Texas inspectors.

“Rebellion on the bridge,” screamed a headline in Spanish in the El Mañana newspaper. It noted that truckers had been delayed by up to three days as they tried to cross with their cargo.

The bridge between Pharr and Reynosa is the largest U.S. land port for produce. It was blocked by Pharr police vehicles and huge orange cones.

Big trucks containing diesel fuel were nearby, needed to refuel idling 18-wheelers that must keep their refrigeration running to keep their cargo cool.

Bonifacio Rodriguez sat in his big, red rig waiting for his chance to dash south across the border — the protests are blocking his trip back after delivering a load of broccoli and mangoes.

“We are victims of politics,” the trucker said. “We are stuck.”

Dante Galeazzi, CEO and president of the Texas Independent Producers Association, said the snarled traffic means $30 million in fresh produce was stalled.

Taking several days off the shelf life of produce means a loss of profit for all those in the supply chain, Galeazzi said. “We are talking about significant decreases in value,” he said.

On Monday a CBP spokesman said truckers should prepare to use other bridges. But Ignacio Arceo, a beefy Mexican trucker, balked. New routes in violent northeastern Mexico would be more dangerous. “Better the devil you know,” Arceo said.

The border wait times in Texas are forcing some truckers to try their luck in New Mexico. Miriam Kotkowski, president of Tecma Transportation Services, which manages a fleet of 80 commercial vehicles that move goods between Mexican factories and U.S. stores and factories, began to reroute her trucks into Santa Teresa, N.M., which straddles the Texas border, on Friday.

The flow of commercial traffic at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry became so huge that the federal port of entry opened lanes Saturday in order to handle the number of trucks, which grew from about 600 to about 1,000 a day, said Jerry Pacheco, president of the Santa Teresa-based Border Industrial Association.

Kotkowski described the situation as “dire” and “unpredictable,” and possibly spelling out disaster for supply chains, including in the automotive industry, where maquiladora assembly plants depend on “just-in-time” scheduled delivery of auto parts to keep building cars.

“We’re rerouting because Santa Teresa is in New Mexico and so they don’t have this mandate that Gov. Abbott directed,” Kotkowski said. “We don’t know what proof Governor Abbott has” to suggest migrants are being smuggled inside trucks through ports of entry.

“Trade is good for the region. Trade is good for Texas and the nation. This is affecting the entire supply chain because we are not delivering products to consumers in the United States. Everything from auto parts, medical supplies, construction to even toys delivered, whether Dallas or New York City. I just don’t get it.’

But for some, the detour to New Mexico was a bust. Across the border from the Santa Teresa Port of Entry on Tuesday afternoon, truck drivers frustrated about the stepped-up inspections blocked traffic in Mexico to protest the increased inspections.

New Mexico state authorities crossed the border to speak with the truckers, reminding them that they were not in Texas, said Pacheco.

“Our officials told them, ‘Look, New Mexico doesn’t have anything to do with Texas politics,” Pacheco said. “The protesters were very grateful because they said that they were the first state officials that had gotten down to talk to them from either side of the border.”

Staff Writer Allie Morris reported from Austin, staff writer Dianne Solis reported from Pharr, and staff writer Alfredo Corchado reported from Santa Teresa, N.M.