Greg Abbott ends disastrous policy amid blowback, touts Mexican policies that were already in place

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GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott raised the white flag on Friday, reversing his stunt that forced commercial vehicles to undergo unnecessary secondary inspections at ports of entry. The failed political calculation, announced April 6 in retaliation for the Biden administration’s just decision to end Stephen Miller policy, was the target of intense bipartisan blowback after causing immense traffic delays and financial losses for food producers.

“A lot of our members are absolutely flabbergasted that this was allowed to happen and that it happened for so long for the sake of border security,” Texas International Produce Association President Dante Galeazzi told The Texas Tribune on Friday. “We feel like we were used as bargaining chips.” 

RELATED STORY: Facing international blowback over unnecessary checks, Abbott stages photo-op with Mexican governor

But this trainwreck of a policy had no basis in border security either. The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted that the redundant checks “did not turn up any human or drug trafficking during the inspections,” the Associated Press reported.

Of course, you won’t hear one smidge of regret from Abbott. Nah. Instead, he was more preoccupied on how to save face amid this self-created disaster, and he began that process by staging a photo-op with the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León. But their agreement provided “little relief for the overall trade logjam,” The Texas Tribune reported at the time.

Abbott on Friday touted agreements with four other Mexican governors as part of ending his policy forcing redundant inspections. The unnecessary checks were happening after U.S. border officials had already conducted their inspections. “But three of the four Mexican governors said they will simply continue security measures they put in place before Abbott ordered the state inspections,” The Texas Tribune now reports.

So how much did Abbott’s political stunt cost businesses and consumers in his state (and across the nation)? Fresh Produce Association of the Americas President Lance Jungmeyer told CNN that the losses to vegetable and fruit producers alone were estimated at over $240 million. There are also the losses to the workers transporting this food, and the losses to consumers now facing higher food prices. Democrats need to be shouting about this from the rooftops.

There’s also Abbott’s conduct itself. I mean, a governor intentionally interrupting international trade as political payback for a federal government’s policy decision seems like an abuse of power. We already know Abbott has sought to usurp federal immigration policy through his unconstitutional Operation Lone Star scheme, which has jailed asylum-seekers without any charges for months on end. The state’s corrupt attorney general, Ken Paxton, also seems to have made a blatant admission on air:

But appeals for the Justice Department to probe the scheme have so far seemed to go nowhere. Now a shameless Abbott continues to use vulnerable people as props through his despicable stunt sending asylum-seekers to Washington, D.C., by bus. 

“There’s only person that this helped, and that was Greg Abbott,” Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke said last week. “For everyone else, this has been terrible. It’s sending prices through the roof, spiking inflation even higher in the state of Texas.” The former congressman told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that food has “literally been rotting” in stalled trucks. Companies that make electronics and build trucks have also faced problems due to exacerbated supply chain problems.

“He is tanking the Texas economy,” O’Rourke continued. “The worst part of all of this is we gained nothing from a security or safety perspective. These DPS troopers providing these additional inspections can only check the pressure in the tires and the quality of the engine. They’re literally not allowed to go into the cargo hold. That inspection is already done by Customs and Border Protection. So this was a purely political stunt that has done deep damage not just to the Texas economy, but the national economy.”

RELATED STORIES: Facing international blowback over unnecessary checks, Abbott stages photo-op with Mexican governor

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

Texas refuses to be transparent about Operation Lone Star. Probably because it’s all a scheme