Texas clamps down again on border traffic
EL PASO, TEXAS >> Officials in Texas took steps Tuesday to all but close an international crossing in El Paso, as state police began conducting commercial vehicle inspections of trucks entering the United States.
The move resembled one ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott this spring, an effort that resulted in traffic jams that severely interrupted the flow of goods into the United States, with lines of trucks stretching back miles into Mexico. Abbott presented that effort as a way to pressure the Mexican government to do more to stop migrants and smugglers from trying to cross the border. He ultimately lifted the inspections after securing broad promises to increase enforcement from local Mexican state leaders, including the governor of Chihuahua, which is just across the border from El Paso.
But the efforts of Abbott and the promises of Mexican officials do not appear to have had much effect.
El Paso has in recent months become a main destination for illegal crossings. Over the weekend, Border Patrol agents recorded more than 7,000 migrant encounters, including with a group of around 1,000 people who came over together Sunday night in one of the largest single crossings in the city.
The situation, fueled first by the arrival of large numbers of Venezuelans and, more recently, of Nicaraguans, has provided a possible preview of the difficulty that border communities could face with the end of a pandemic public health policy that allowed for rapid removals of arriving migrants. Until October, the policy did not apply to Venezuelans, for diplomatic reasons, which meant that most Venezuelans were released into the United States pending their immigration hearings. The policy, known as Title 42, still does not apply to Nicaraguans. It is set to expire next week, unless a court delays the date.
Republican elected officials, as well as some moderate Democrats, have been urging an extension of the policy. “Never before in our nation’s history have we experienced this scope and scale of illegal border crossings,” read a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday from Rep. Tony Gonzales and Sen. John Cornyn, both Republicans of Texas, and from Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both Democrats.