A Mexican governor promised Wednesday to deploy his own police to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he’ll cancel some of the enhanced commercial traffic inspections that had clogged the ports of entry into the state.
Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel Alejandro Garcia Sepulveda said that means checkpoints on his side of the border, and his police patrolling the Rio Grande, to turn back illegal activity.
“Our 14-kilometer border with Texas be continuously patrolled by our police,” he said in a meeting with Mr. Abbott.
Mr. Abbott said Texas officials have verified that the new checks are working.
“The report I received last night … said they observed no activity crossing the river whatsoever, during the timespan they observed it,” the governor said.
Mr. Abbott said he’s trying to strike similar agreements with other Mexican governors, but until then the enhanced inspections along the rest of the state’s border will continue.
The two governors cast their agreement as groundbreaking, though Mr. Abbott said it was a shame that they had to step in where President Biden has faltered.
“Not once has Joe Biden been down to the border. Not once has he sat down to try to hammer out an agreement like this,” Mr. Abbott said.
The Texan imposed his new inspections last week as a response to the Biden administration’s decision to cancel the Title 42 pandemic border policy that had allowed many illegal immigrants to be expelled, rather than caught and released.
With the end of Title 42 next month, Homeland Security is expecting up to 540,000 illegal immigrants a month to rush the border — about three times the current rate.
Mr. Abbott said he would start shipping some of the released migrants to Washington, and the first busload arrived Wednesday.
And he announced the safety inspections, which he said were about trying to sniff out unsafe vehicles, but which analysts figured were about bringing economic pain to Mexico.
It worked.
Commercial traffic at the Columbia Solidarity Bridge, the border crossing between Texas and Nueva Leon, usually faces a wait of 26 minutes. But it reached a peak of 300 minutes after the new safety inspections, according to Customs and Border Protection.
The Biden administration blasted Mr. Abbott, saying he was worsening the supply chain crisis that is already affecting the U.S.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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