Borders and Super Bowl parties

CHRIS TOMLINSON

If President Joe Biden sealed the border with Mexico, as many Republicans are demanding, their Super Bowl parties would be very sad, as a former president might say.

No avocados or tomatoes for guacamole. No tequila or limes for margaritas. Americans would lose more than $3.45 billion worth of beer if the president closed the crossing at Eagle Pass alone, trade data shows.

Autoworkers couldn’t afford a party due to furloughs caused by shortages of Mexican-made parts. The border towns would lose up to 40% of workers who cross daily. Restaurants and hotels would close, and rich folks would have to clean their own toilets.

Yet migrants would continue risking life and limb to save their lives and limbs. History shows where there is a will, there is a way to cross the shallow river and cut through the brush and mountains.

Sealing the border is physically impossible, and closing trade would trigger an economic catastrophe.

Mexico is the United States’ largest trading partner, with exports to Mexico totaling $362.7 billion and imports reaching $500.7 billion in

2022, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. Mexico is a significant supplier of fresh fruit and vegetables, many of which come across the Texas border.

Trade is essential to Eagle Pass, where Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas National Guard to prevent federal Customs and Border Protection agents from doing their jobs.

More than $33 billion in rail traffic passed through Eagle Pass and El Paso in fiscal year 2023, representing more than a third of all cross-border trade, Bureau of Transportation Statistics data showed.

At Eagle Pass’ two international bridges, crossings in December totaled 186,000 private vehicles, 12,115 commercial trucks, 950 buses and

Tomlinson continues on B3