Governors of three Mexican states have signed agreements to bolster border security in exchange for Texas ramping down truck inspections that were backing up commercial traffic for miles.
A Memorandum of Understanding, signed by Texas and Nuevo León on Wednesday, says the states will collaborate to ensure northbound vehicles meet safety standards, and stop migrants from heading to the Texas-Mexico border. Governors of the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila quickly followed suit, signing their agreements with Texas on Thursday.
Texas’ “enhanced” safety inspections had triggered hours-long delays of vehicles coming into Laredo, the busiest land port on the southern border. The Texas Tribune quoted the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) as saying nearly 25 percent of 4,133 northbound commercial vehicles “were placed out of service for serious safety violations to include defective brakes, defective tires and defective lighting.”
Feeling the pinch, Nuevo León officials agreed to step up. “Security is the key issue,” said Gov. Samuel Garcia Sepulveda, announcing that his state’s nine-mile border with Texas is now “continuously policed” by local and federal authorities patrolling Mexico’s side of the Rio Grande.
DPS said its follow-up surveillance showed no migrant river crossings along that stretch of border this week.
Within 24 hours, Govs. María Eugenia Campos Galván of Chihuahua and Miguel Ángel Riquelme Solís of Coahuila signed their own agreements with Texas. Chihuahua has a major border crossing at Juárez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso; Coahuila shares international bridges with Del Rio and Eagle Pass, two hotspots for illegal migrant crossings.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, noting that “Nuevo León has raised its standards,” also praised Chihuahua for producing “the best border security plan I’ve seen from any governor in Mexico.”
With Texas truck inspections continuing to back up traffic at other ports of entry, Abbott said he expects at least one more Mexican governor to come to the table.
Texas troopers will continue inspecting every commercial truck entering from the state of Tamaulipas, which shares border crossings with McAllen and Brownsville, the two largest cities in the Rio Grande Valley. “People need to understand the consequences here,” Abbott said.