Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Halts Additional Truck Inspections at the Border | Did They Find Anything Illegal During Checks?

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday revoked an order that required all commercial trucks from Mexico crossing the border to undergo extra inspections.

According to Associated Press, Abbott's move came after a week of backlash and fears of deepening economic losses as gridlock on the border worsened due to his new rules.

Since Mexican states are pledging to do more security checks in Mexico, Abbott noted that he was allowing the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to halt mandatory safety inspections of all commercial vehicles entering the state and return to performing random spot checks, NBC 5 reported.

"All these bridges are open back up to normal trafficking. So, all the goods that used to go from one country to the other at a very rapid pace, they are moving at that rapid pace as we speak right now," Abbott said.

However, the Texas governor warned that he would again order to shut down "certain bridges" if they saw increased trafficking across the border.

According to Abbott, he entered into an agreement with the governor of Mexico's state of Tamaulipas on Friday and was told they would do more on the southern side to prevent trafficking.

Tamaulipas is the latest state in Mexico that assured Abbott that they would do more on the southern side of the border to prevent trafficking. The Texas governor has also reached deals with the governors of Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, and Coahuila.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Criticized Over Additional Truck Inspections

Greg Abbott's move to lift additional truck inspections on Texas and Mexico bridges came after several entities and officials slammed him over the measure.

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Beto O'Rourke said Abbott's order was unnecessary. O'Rourke, who is challenging Abbott in the governor's race this fall, noted that Abbott's ruling was already in addition to all the Customs and Border Protection inspections to guard against human smuggling and illegal drug trafficking.

He noted that "these were completely unnecessary inspections that also did not allow the inspectors that Greg Abbott put on these bridges to even look inside of the cargo hold."

"So there was no ability to detect illegal drug trafficking or human smuggling even if it was taking place on these ports of entry. This was completely unnecessary and did absolutely nothing," O'Rourke added.

The American Trucking Association said Abbott's measure was "wholly flawed, redundant, adding considerable weight on an already strained supply chain," Al Jazeera reported.

The White House also slammed Abbott's order, claiming that the measure drove up prices amid soaring inflation in the United States.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller also issued an open letter to Abbott earlier this week, claiming that the inspection protocol is not stopping the illegal immigration but instead affects the food from getting to grocery shelves.

It can be recalled that Abbott's order has snarled traffic, with some truckers reporting wait times of more than 30 hours to cross the border. It also prompted protests that blocked several commercial crossings in Texas and New Mexico.

Texas Truck Inspections: Did They Find Anything Illegal?

Over the past week, Texas state troopers inspected more than 6,000 commercial vehicles, AP reported, citing the Texas DPS. However, DPS Director Steve McCraw said the troopers did not find any drug or human trafficking during the inspections.

"There is actually no human trafficking and/or drug trafficking that we've been able to detect since we've done 100 percent compliant investigations," McCraw noted, adding that the cartels likely knew the inspections were taking place.

But Abbott said the DPS troopers managed to remove about 25 percent of the vehicles inspected for safety violations that made them unsafe to operate based on state laws.

"There were a tremendous number of safety violations that the DPS was able to uncover that may have... saved the lives of Texans that these vehicles could have crashed into," Abbott noted.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

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