SANTA TERESA, New Mexico – The Mexican government has said it intends to change long-term plans to build a multibillion-dollar trade rail link from Texas to New Mexico following intensified border controls by Governor Greg Abbott last month, which have been widely criticized as financially damaging. can now have a lasting impact on the relationship between Texas and its No. 1 trading partner.
Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Cloutier said the planned expansion of the railroad and ports – known as the T-MEC corridor – to connect the Pacific port of Mazatlan with the Canadian city of Winnipeg would not use Texas, but the railroad would be targeted instead. on the far end of West Texas up through Santa Teresa, New York, about 20 miles west of downtown El Paso.
“We will not use Texas now,” Clottie told a conference on April 28 in Mexico City. “We cannot leave all our eggs in one basket and be hostage to someone who wants to use trade as a political tool.
Clouthier was referring to what Mexican and US officials and business leaders on both sides of the border described as chaos generated by Abbott’s April 6 order requiring all commercial trucks coming from Mexico to Texas to undergo “intensified” checks on safety. Abbott said the move was needed to fight human and drug smugglers.
Critics rebuffed the governor’s move as politically motivated, noting that commercial trucks are already being inspected by US federal authorities. They also noted that border security is a federal responsibility and that while DPS officers can conduct vehicle safety inspections, they do not have the authority to conduct searches.
The DPS did not report the detection of unauthorized migrants or illicit drugs during the 10-day period of intensified inspections, although a number of security breaches were found. The slow pace of inspections and protests led by trucks upset by the delays has led to routine backups from 5am to 12pm at commercial border crossings. Some truck drivers interviewed by Dallas Morning News they said they had to wait three days to pass.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a border security agreement with Chihuahua Gov. Maria Campos Galvan in Austin on April 14th. (Acacia Coronado / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Abbott ordered the inspections to end after the governors of Mexican states bordering Texas presented him with border security plans – mostly work that is already underway – that he could promote through newly signed agreements at press conferences.
But the damage had already been done. Delays at border crossings have left some perishable goods rotting and strained supply chains that have already been stressed by the coronavirus pandemic. Waco-based researcher Perryman Group estimates that Texas has suffered economic damage of approximately $ 4.2 billion. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Abbott’s actions “despised”.
Abbott’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Jerry Pacheco, president of the Santa Teresa-based Border Industrial Association, called Clouthier’s announcement a “very positive step for New Mexico,” but warned that completing such a project would take years and “anything could happen in that time.” .
“I don’t think they’ve even finished the design yet,” Pacheco said. “So that’s a lot in the early stages, but the very fact that we’re being discussed in the early stages is a positive thing. If this particular project fails, there will be other projects that the Mexican government will have, and they will speak positively about New Mexico because they know we want to work with them in a constructive way.
Pacheco said he had already seen a major change in the business community in Mexico and the United States.
“It was very interesting, but after the inspections of Governor Abbott’s truck disappeared, the number of our traffic remains higher than normal for cargo shipments in the north, which makes me believe that what I thought would be temporary solution, in fact, will be maintained in the long run, “he said. The business leaders in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso refer to us as a “very efficient delivery route”. ”
Borderplex, a community-based private sector advocacy group based in El Paso, declined to comment.
In many ways, Abbott’s inspections have only strengthened Santa Teresa, an already thriving community with a port of entry, where companies also produce materials and components for factories in Mexico that assemble everything from computers, windshields, consumer electronics and processed foods to cars and industrial equipment. that they then ship back to US-based businesses.
Santa Teresa’s industrial parks have large warehouses for products that constantly cross the border, supported by a transport network that includes an airport and railway and distribution companies that manage the constant movement of goods in all directions. The entire industrial zone functions as one of the country’s largest inland ports for truck and train transhipment in North America, although Laredo is a №1 checkpoint for trading platforms.
The port of Santa Teresa has long offered a quick alternative to congested El Paso border crossings, where it usually takes two hours or more for trucks to enter the north. In contrast, Santa Teresa takes less than 20 minutes, according to Pacheco.
“For companies that haven’t used the Santa Teresa port of entry, think of this alternative as a great, necessary idea,” said Franz Felhaber, president of Felhaber and Company Inc., a customs brokerage that serves clients on both sides of the border.
The trucks were waiting to be inspected by Texas military personnel at an inspection site near the recently opened Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge on April 14 in Pharr. (Juan Figueroa / full-time photographer)
During the chaotic week following the start of intensified inspections, Abbott, Felhaber and other customs brokers and truck companies began diverting commercial vehicles from El Paso to New Mexico to bypass Texas.
“While Abbott wants to mess with the supply chain, New Mexico is a solid Plan B,” Felhaber said. “We need options.”
Abbut has threatened to resume inspections if he believes border security is inadequate. This prompts business and trade experts to be cautious, as migration across the southwestern border is already expected to rise from about 6,000 a day to 18,000 a day this summer due to seasonal changes and the planned abolition of the pandemic health. which allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants on 23 May.
Business leaders are quick to say they support border security, but continue to worry about things affecting more than $ 661 billion in trade between the United States and Mexico.
“I do not agree with what Abbott did, I want to say that he had to do something to try to protect us at the border, but he also created a much more serious problem than I think he imagined. “Said James K. Robinson, president of JH Rose Logistics, which provides trucks for international trade in this border region. “It just made a mess in the supply chain, so to speak.”
Here in Santa Teresa, a small, boisterous community with a big heart, things seem to be going up. Several million dollars of state, private and federal infrastructure projects are underway in southern New Mexico, including in Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, just beyond the state of Texas, Pacheco said, adding that annual trade between New Mexico and Mexico is about $ 2.8 billion, a drop in the bucket compared to Texas.
In February, the last month for which data was available, $ 39.5 billion worth of goods were transported by truck across the Texas-Mexico border in both directions.
Abbott’s recent actions at the border, Pacheco said, underscore the differences between Texas and New Mexico.
“We are also absolutely playing border politics, but we are playing to bring more trade from Mexico through our ports of entry into New Mexico, not to hinder trade,” he said.
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