Trade officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border want Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to end state-run cargo truck inspections that are creating wait times of over five hours in El Paso and Eagle Pass.
Trade across the U.S.-Mexican border has slowed over the past two weeks as U.S. authorities have shifted customs personnel to immigration duty and shut down some crossing lanes at ports of entry amid an increase in migrants.
Border officials said while the migrant influx has had an impact on operations, state-run inspections overseen by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) are causing major disruption to commercial trade flows.
“The DPS inspection is slowing down the commercial traffic flow,” Homero Balderas, general manager for the city of Eagle Pass International Bridge System, told FreightWaves. “We have gone from 850 trucks a day to roughly under 400 due to the inspection delay. It’s hurting the Eagle Pass Bridge System drastically and more importantly the supply chain.”
Balderas said due to the migrant surge in the area and the shifting of U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, the bridge system has been forced to close Bridge I, which is the port of entry’s passenger vehicle bridge. With the closure of Bridge I, all vehicles — both passenger and commercial cargo trucks — must use Bridge 2, also known as the Camino Real Bridge.
“It creates congestion that impacts our commercial traffic heading to Mexico,” Balderas said. “Overall it’s a bad situation; we need something to change soon. In two weeks, we have seen a drop of 30,000 [passenger] vehicles and 4,000 cargo trucks.”
The Texas DPS inspections started Sept. 20 at the Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge in El Paso and the Camino Real Bridge in Eagle Pass. The inspections are aimed at stopping cartels from smuggling drugs across the border, DPS officials said.
The checkpoints launched by the DPS are in addition to commercial truck inspections conducted by CBP.
On Monday, the Camino Real Bridge in Eagle Pass had wait times of over four hours.
Cargo truck wait times at the Ysleta-Zaragoza bridge on Monday were over six hours in the general commercial lanes and four and a half hours for vehicles permitted for the Free and Secure Trade program lanes.
CBP closed El Paso’s Bridge of the Americas on Sept. 18 and moved all cross-border cargo truck inspections to the nearby Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge.
Trade officials in Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, said the DPS inspections have caused major supply chain disruptions between the two cities.
“The problem is no longer customs. It is Gov. Abbott who is choking the maquiladora,” Thor Salayandia, president of the Juarez Chamber of Industry and Manufacturing, told the EFE [news] Agency. “He is taking political advantage of the immigration issue. … He has the agents doing some checks where he is no longer looking for migrants. It is very unfortunate that only one person, Abbott, is the one who is causing all this damage to both the Juarez economy and the corporations that own the maquiladoras.”
Juarez is home to more than 300 maquiladoras, producing mainly automotive parts, as well as products ranging from electronics and aeronautical supplies to medical devices. Maquiladoras are foreign-owned factories that import parts from abroad and build products made strictly for export.
Many of the maquiladoras in Juarez depend on supply chains through the El Paso port of entry for manufacturing.
Last week, Canada-based power sport vehicle manufacturing firm Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) temporarily suspended operations at its three plants in Juarez because of supply chain issues.
“Due to the waiting times on the international bridges in Ciudad Juarez, we have had a significant reduction in the volume of units that we can export daily,” BRP said in a statement to the media. “This is why we have made the decision to suspend production in our three plants for two days to allow our exports to stabilize and relieve the capacity of our warehouses.”
Manuel Sotelo, vice president of the Juarez chapter of Mexico’s National Chamber of Freight Transport (Canacar), said the slowdowns caused by the DPS inspections have resulted in more than $1.5 billion in goods stranded at the border.
“No one is coordinating operations to solve or stop the problem. The governor of Texas is affecting the economy of both countries with between 10,000 and 11,000 stranded loads,” Sotelo told the EFE Agency. “If we multiply that by $135,000 per load, we are talking about $1.5 billion, which is not a loss, but goods that have not been able to cross.”
Officials for the Texas DPS and Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FreightWaves.
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Jorge N/A Canavati
I cant believe some of these comments. These trucks don’t bring in migrants of which are from other countries. But what do you know?
dave
unload every truck and search the cargo, the trailer frame, the cab, check the air filters and other places. Each truck should be there for about 2 days, and charge Mexico for the trouble. The border is an invasion and must be treated that way. The National Guard or the US Military should be on the border stopping all illegals and doing all border work since the border patrol is paid off. The border patrol people can get busy rounding up all the illegals they let in to deport them immediately. We need to deport around 50 million.
Stephen webster
We needto put 500 more personal on truck inspections from 🇲🇽. Too many deaths among people from drugs We need also to stop all foreign truck drivers coming into Texas.
Andrew Bayuk
Let’s get to the root of the issue. Mass out of control illegal immigration, drugs and the nefarious pouring into the U.S. Who knows what’s in trucks if inspections were curtailed. And as it is it’s not even thorough to begin with. The Mexican trade officials should be hollering at their own government for the coordinated human trafficking where cartels and themselves are making billions with illegal activities their allowing across their country and the border and should stop this mass illegal migration.
The problems at the border with the trucking is the result “of” other factors that should be addressed. Not a problem prior when it was under control. As for Abbot he’s a globalist and anything he’s doing is window dressing and succumbing to pressures he can’t avoid. It’s all theatre and to the trade industry your right it’s undermining free flow healthy trade. But go talk to your own government and cartels.
Albert B
Reading in between the lines, we are just going to let drug cartels move product freely across the border – provided they can utilize a commercial truck? One of the biggest drug corridors in the world and people are clamoring to stop truck inspections. I find that curious.
Ed Flow
Funny how the blame is directed at one person on the US side – “The problem is no longer customs. It is Gov. Abbott who is choking the maquiladora,” Thor Salayandia, president of the Juarez Chamber of Industry and Manufacturing..”
How about the fact that the president of Mexico and those in the Mexican govt actually provide the transportation thru their country for the the migrants, to the border where these problems continue to fester.
Mexico could stop this if they really wanted to. The Biden admin is also complicit but the govt of Mexico first allowing entry into their country, and then bussing people north is where this blame lies.. not on the governor of TX.
kT
Start inspecting them twice. Show them the price of their audacity.
Peter C.Ely
Abbott should go to Eagle Rock Pass and do the BP and Federal inspections from his wheel chair, onto of a inspections tower ,with nothing bit a Diaper of 1 depends for him to wear.
You can learn a lot from Mister Abbott.