Texas Hold-Em on Border Bridges

AUSTIN, Texas – National media went wild over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s April 6 press briefing vow that he would bus illegal immigrants to Washington D.C. But they overlooked an Abbott plan I figured in a column would matter much more: “enhanced safety inspections” of commercial trucking coming off the international bridges from Mexico.

While cameras followed the bus-em-to-DC story, the governor’s Texas Department of Public Safety was wreaking major trade havoc at some of America’s busiest commercial ports of entry, backlogging trucks into long snaking lines into the Mexican horizon. Bright and early on Thursday April 7, small groups of Texas Department of Public Safety commercial vehicle inspectors started slow and methodical inspections of trucks coming off the Pharr-Reynosa international bridge. The operation immediately jammed up trucks for more miles into Mexico than web and drone cameras could see – and probably will again all this coming week.

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-Greg