If Abbott is looking for a mess on the border, he should retrace his own steps to the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge where hundreds of truckers Monday protested ballooning wait times stretching into days at the border following Abbott’s latest bit of border meddling.
The governor, who was busy Monday touting the success of his decidedly less than successful Operation Lone Star, directed state troopers last week to conduct their own inspections of incoming commercial vehicles, duplicating a job historically done by federal customs and border protection employees. Those additional checks were running from 45 minutes to an hour, according to the Texas Tribune. The cumulative effect leads to truck drivers having to wait for days to cross.
The situation had been turning sour as drivers run out of fuel and watch their perishable goods go bad.
Delays at the border had been a strain for some time, according to the Texas Tribune, due to a staffing crunch. But this latest intervention courtesy of Abbott stands out as both entirely avoidable and poorly executed. Teclo Garcia, the economic development director for Laredo, told the Texas Tribune that the state didn’t contact local officials before launching its latest overreach during one of the busiest times at the border.
“Trade with Mexico is one of the most important economic drivers for Texas, and inefficiencies at the border will have an enormous impact on the economy and the everyday lives of Texans throughout the border region,” five border-area state senators wrote in a letter sent to the governor over the weekend.
Abbott has hit the border hard as a reliable talking point, gaining wind from Trump allies who — in a feverish war games fantasy — warn of a looming “invasion” with the upcoming repeal of the federal COVID-era Title 42 policy that restricted border crossing. With an eye on the November election, Abbott continues to reference Operation Lone Star as though it’s actually accomplished something other than bogging down local courthouses and jails, and now, international trade.
While broccoli and strawberries spoiled at the border Monday, Abbott was busy in El Paso at the annual meeting of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition talking up the operation’s success in seizing drugs and bad actors at the border. He seems unconcerned that the numbers the state once credited to his operation — 11,000 arrests! — were actually found, in an investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and The Marshall Project, to be misrepresentations at best and outright lies at worst.
It turns out some of those arrests and seizures were happening far from the border, unrelated to any Operation Lone Star spending, while others predated the initiative or came from jurisdictions that weren’t even included in the initiative. Still Abbott took the time Monday to repeat recently announced border actions, including a (voluntary) busing scheme and stepped up patrols. But once again, local officials on the ground said they hadn’t heard from Abbott directly about these plans.
“It’s irrational because he doesn’t come and say, ‘Hey, what do you guys need? How can we help you?’” El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego told El Paso Times.
There are real threats at the border, including the 191,000 pounds of methamphetamine, 97,600 pounds of cocaine and 11,200 pounds of fentanyl seized in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But that same agency is already at the border on the lookout for such threats.
If Abbott really wants to help Texas businesses, law enforcement and land owners, he should start reaching out to those actual communities on the ground and stop mucking things up more for commercial truckers just trying to feed us.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism