The governor of Texas said on Wednesday that the days of traffic jams on the border were part of a concerted effort to force Mexican officials to do more to stop the flow of migrants into the United States.
Mr. Abbott said he would only end the inspections on the bridge between Laredo and the Mexican city ofColombia if there was a solution to the immigration issue.
The Texas police will continue to stop all trucks coming from other Mexican states for safety inspections, despite increasing pressure from both parties who are calling for an end to the delays that have stretched for hours and even days.
Mr. Abbott, a two-term Republican up for re-election this year, said that alogged bridges can end only through collaboration.
Mr. Abbott acknowledged that the safety inspections he ordered last week were a way to exert political pressure on Mexican officials and on President Biden.
The goal all along has been to ensure that people understood the consequences of an open border and that Texas wouldn't tolerate it anymore.
In a statement on Wednesday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, called the inspections unnecessary and redundant. State police in Texas have set up vehicle safety checks just beyond where trucks pass through federal inspection. Commercial traffic had fallen by as much as 60 percent.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it opposed Mr. Abbott's actions and that Mexican officials had been in touch with him.
The safety checks have applied to all commercial vehicles entering Texas at major commercial crossings, and in the days since they commenced, backups at the border have grown substantially.
Businesses can't get goods into Texas. Mexican truck drivers were facing long delays in the heat without food or bathroom and began to protest and create blockades in the cities of Pharr and El Paso late Monday into Tuesday.
The conservative agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller, urged Mr. Abbott to end the inspections, saying they were increasing the cost of food and adding to supply chain shortages.
On Wednesday, Mr. Abbott was in the border city of Laredo with the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo Len, who said that Texas would end the safety checks for trucks.
In exchange for setting up some checkpoints on the Mexican side of the crossing, officials in his state promised that the 14 kilometers of border with Texas would be continually patrolled by the police.
Mr. Abbott presented the decision as a victory, suggesting he had been able to reach an agreement with Mexican leaders in one state on border security, and promised to do so with others as well.
Mr. Abbott did not mention the aim in the inspections last week. He had said that the inspections were part of a broader response to the Biden administration's announcement that it would be ending a Trump-era policy of turning back most migrants at the border.
The public health policy is expected to end next month.
Mr. Abbott has been trying to pressure the Biden administration by taking migrants released from federal custody into Texas and bringing them to Washington or other locations outside of the state. State officials said that the migrants went on a voluntary basis.
Mr. Abbott said in a statement that the first of the buses carrying migrants arrived in Washington. A second was on the way.
A camera crew from Fox News was on hand for the arrival of the first bus and captured images of the migrants as they exited near the Capitol, wearing masks and gripping manila envelopes.
The border and the opposition to the Biden administration's immigration policies have been seen as a winning issue by Mr. Abbott and his political strategists.
It was a rare opportunity for Democrats to use the border against Mr. Abbott because of the backups caused by the inspections.
The wrong response to the problem of Title 42 was said by Representative Henry Cuellar. He is affecting a lot of incomes. The cost is going to be passed on to the consumer.
The reporting was done by Niraj Chokshi.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
