After heavy bipartisan backlash, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday ended a Texas DPS checkpoint for commercial trucks coming in from Nuevo León, Mexico, after striking a deal with Gov. Samuel Alejandro Garcia Sepulveda.
Abbott said the Mexican governor committed to enhanced security measures, which allows Texas to end its checkpoint, which backed up commercial trucks for hours or days, leading to massive delays and protests.
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The only bridge impacted by the agreement is the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge.
Abbott said he is working with other Mexican governors to end the checkpoints at other points of entry, but until those agreements are reached, Texas DPS will continue its secondary inspections.
White House officials had blasted the initiative, calling it “unnecessary and redundant.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a fellow Republican, also called on Abbott to end the inspections.
“Your inspection protocol is not stopping illegal immigration,” Miller said in an open letter to the governor. “It is stopping food from getting to grocery store shelves and in many cases causing food to rot in trucks — many of which are owned by Texas and other American companies.”
Though the policy is Abbott’s idea, he blamed President Joe Biden.
“If you want relief from the clogged border, you need to call President Biden and tell him to maintain the Title 42 expulsion policy that has been in place for years,” Abbott said.
Abbott started the checkpoint initiative after the Biden administration indicated the end of Title 42, a federal provision invoked that allowed federal agents to quickly expel undocumented immigrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.