A new truck inspection policy by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (right) is causing “significant disruption to food and car supply chains,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday, criticizing the new regulations.
Abbott has ordered Texas police to begin inspecting trade supplies crossing the Mexican border last week, despite federal inspections that have already taken place. He and other prominent Republicans have argued without evidence that the southern border has been taken over by drugs and human traffickers because of what they call President Joe Biden’s “open border policy.”
But Abbott’s new policy is “unnecessary and redundant,” Psaki said in a statement.
Long queues of commercial trucks stopped at the border this week, some for half a day, leaving shipments of fresh fruit and vegetables lying on truck beds during the year when the United States imports much of its produce from Mexico. Drivers are protesting against the regulations, preparing to impose blockades on international bridges, according to local media.
Psaki said the new inspections “slow down production, affect jobs and raise prices for families in Texas and across the country.”
“The constant flow of legitimate trade and travel and [Customs and Border Protection’s] “The ability to do one’s job should not be hindered,” she said.
Trade groups and a bipartisan group of government officials overturned Abbott’s decision, including Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
![Truck passengers blocked the entrance for commercial drivers entering the entrance port of Santa Teresa, leading to New Mexico, near the border with Texas, on Tuesday. The protests are wrong because New Mexico has nothing to do with Texas inspection policies, said Jerry Pacheco, executive director of the International Business Accelerator and president of the Border Industry Association.](https://i0.wp.com/img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/6256e03c240000685f96f052.jpeg?resize=720%2C404&ssl=1)
Roberto E. Rosales / The Albuquerque Journal through the Associated Press
In an open letter to Abbott, Miller called the governor’s “wrong policy” an example of “political theater” that would put indescribable pressure on already stressed supply chains.
“Your inspection protocol does not stop illegal immigration,” Miller wrote. “This stops food from reaching the shelves of grocery stores and in many cases causes food to rot in trucks – many of which are owned by Texas and other US companies.”
Dante Galeazzi, president of the Texas International Producers Association, told The New York Times that the situation at the southern border is “now at a crisis level.”
“We are seeing delays that will be felt across the country,” John Esparza, president of the Texas Truck Association, told The Washington Post.
“There are half a dozen truck units [affected]. There is the refrigeration segment of the trucks, there are household goods, forestry, fuel tanks, merchandise goods – this is for General Motors, Ford and everything that comes from Mexico, our trading partner, “Esparza said at the exit.