Abbott's increased truck inspections in response to Biden admin leading to huge delays, rotting food

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s retribution for the Biden administration’s just decision to stop enforcing Stephen Miller’s anti-asylum Title 42 policy at the southern border is resulting in massive delays for commercial truckers, rotting food, and worries from businesses leaders that disrupted trade will lead to empty shelves.

The right-wing official last week claimed that he would forcibly bus asylum-seekers from Texas to Washington, D.C., to punish the administration for its correct move to end use of the white supremacist policy. This was a cruel, disgusting stunt that Abbott then quickly backed down from, stating that it would actually be voluntary. Thanks for the free rides, Greg.

But in another part of his retaliation, Abbott announced that commercial vehicles would have to undergo additional inspection at ports of entry, even though these vehicles are already inspected by the federal government. But even these added checks are a stunt, because The Texas Tribune reports troopers can only do mechanical checks, not cargo checks.

RELATED STORY: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott peddles horrific plan to kidnap immigrants, then backtracks

The unnecessary checks have now resulted in delays lasting for as long as several days, and warnings that consumers may soon pay the price of Abbott’s politicking.

“’One of our customers canceled the order because we didn’t deliver on time,’ said Modesto Guerra, sales manager for Sterling Fresh Inc., which imports broccoli from Central Mexico via the Pharr bridge before shipping it to the Midwest and East Coast,” The Texas Tribune reported in another recent piece. One Mexican trucker told a Spanish-language outlet that would normally make “two crossings into the U.S. a day,” the report continued. “Now, he’d be lucky to have one or two a week given the long delays at the bridges.”

“We are losing just as much as them,” he said in the report. “When they start needing more produce, the prices are going to go up.

The Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge has been the site of a protest by Mexican truckers, who have blocked traffic in both directions over Abbott’s shenanigans. We’ll see if mainstream media touts and promotes this protest as much as the one at the northern border. In one photo shared by The Monitor reporter Dina Arévalo, a handful of state vehicles and one commercial truck are seen on an otherwise empty port that the reporter said is usually one of the busiest in the nation. 

“For the 6th day, @GovAbbott has disrupted trade, which will affect businesses & lead to higher prices,” tweeted Rep. Joaquin Castro. “These political stunts have already militarized the border & harmed Texas guard members. Now, he’s going to make it harder for families to put food on the table.”

Similar warnings came from conservative Democrat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who told The Texas Tribune that Abbott’s “unnecessary secondary inspections are killing business on the border.” Both Gonzalez and Rep. Henry Cuellar had previously joined Republicans in opposing the Biden administration’s Title 42 decision.

Abbott’s Democratic opponent for governor, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, shared a nearly 20-minute video from the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge. Behind him was a very visible line of trucks, all stuck due to Abbott’s policies. Another video shared by O’Rourke showed truck after truck after truck. “This is inflation,” he tweeted. “Higher prices at the grocery store. A supply chain crisis that is killing businesses along the border. This is what Greg Abbott is doing to Texas.”

A concerned Texas International Produce Association (TIPA) issued a letter to Abbott on Friday that complained of hours-long delays, noting lines “at a stand-still” and that “many carriers and brokers are reporting hours of non-movement.” TIPA President Dante Galeazzi said he fears that business will get sick of Abbott’s bullshit (my words, not his) and move operations to Mexico or neighboring states.

”Warehouses have staff sitting idle, with no trucks to unload,” Galeazzi said. “Buyers in other parts of the country cannot understand why their product is not available. US trucking companies are losing money as they sit around for days with no loads to haul. I have even heard from a member that a trucking company is refusing to send trucks south of San Antonio out of concern there will be no cargo available. This is destroying our business and the reputation of Texas.”

But that’s Greg Abbott, who has sunk $2 billion in state taxpayer money (and counting) into his Operation Lone Star border scheme, which has been such a supposed success that the governor’s office won’t hand over all the data proving it’s been such a success.

What we can say the Operation Lone Star border scheme has done is continue to illegally imprison asylum-seekers and other migrants without any charges (which he doesn’t give a shit about) and force deployed soldiers to deplorable conditions. Some soldiers tied to the operation have also died, some by suicide. But Abbott’s reaction was to blame President Biden and to scapegoat a department leader. 

“If a person is a soldier or a migrant, he doesn’t care,” El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar recently told Border Report. “For him, they represent an opportunity to advance his politics of hate and cruelty. He’s not focused on solutions or on working with Congress to really help Texans; he’s focused on winning (re-election) at any cost.”

RELATED STORIES: Escobar says Abbott’s plan to get asylum-seekers out of Texas is more ‘politics of hate and cruelty’

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