Mexican Trucks Roll Across the United States

[Chipster]

Today, with US government and court authorization, Mexican trucks will begin to roll, bisecting the continental United States, northbound to the Canadian border – and anywhere else in the US - as part of a year-long "pilot program" championed by the Bush administration. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently approved the program when it denied a request made by the Teamsters, the Sierra Club and the nonprofit Public Citizen to halt it.

NAFTA requires that all roads in the United States, Mexico and Canada to be opened to carriers from all three countries. Previously, Mexican trucks and their cargo had to stop within 20 miles inside the US border, where cargo was then transferred to American carriers for national distribution. Advocates argue that the program allows American trucking firms access into Mexico and upholds agreements in NAFTA.

Teamsters argued that the program failed to create a program that yields statistically valid findings and to reveal the inspection results for motor carriers allowed to drive beyond the border zone.

Reacting to the decision, Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa stated: “Congress has repeatedly and overwhelmingly set stringent safety conditions for the cross-border trucking program to meet before our borders are thrown open,” Hoffa said. “The Transportation Department inspector general’s report released Aug. 21 made it clear that those conditions have not been met. The Bush administration’s reckless endangerment of the American people is matched only by its brazen disregard for the law of the land....This is the wrong decision for American working men and women. We will now proceed to litigate this case on the merits. We believe this program clearly breaks the law. We will continue to fight for safety and national security in the courts and in Congress."

Under the current briefing schedule, the Teamster brief is due on November 19 and government's response is due on December 17.

In May, the House of Representatives voted 411-3 to delay the pilot program, requiring a series of safeguards including an independent panel for program evaluation, and US DOT certification that safety and inspection requirements have been met, including English-proficiency and alcohol and drug testing. The Border-Trade Alliance supported the program and safeguards.

The Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the FY2008 Transportation Appropriations bill next week. This week, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) issued a national action alert urging its members to contact their senators and ask them to include a provision to cut off funding to the Mexican truck pilot program, similar to the already amended House version.

Some critics oppose the program because they say that it fails to comply with congressional mandates for operator, equipment and safety requirements. Others fear that the Mexican trucks will disperse illegal immigrants and drugs throughout the nation. Still others oppose it as a labor-cost lowering device by international corporations.

All of which is a more than a bit reminiscent of the unconstitutional techniques successfully employed by the Bush administration in Rovian-contrived black-box voting: obliterate standards and undermine quantitative measurement.

But, there's much more to raise alarm.

Never mind that California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have higher truck-vehicle accident rates than other states – a possible and probable indicator of the carnage we can anticipate on our national roads, in the name of "expedited delivery" of consumer goods – and higher corporate profits – without corporate accountability (liability).

Never mind that Article 4, section 4 of the US Constitution guarantees the federal government will protect every state against invasion and domestic violence.

Never mind that the federal government, under the Bush administration, has failed to fulfill its Constitutional responsibility to secure our national borders.

Never mind that the US Department of Transportation Inspector General acknowledges in his recent reportthat:

• the driver database used by US highway enforcement officials to identify Mexican truckers contains "data inconsistencies," (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California inexplicably stopped recording tickets issued to Mexican truckers for a period of time, according to a Senate Appropriations Committee report);
  
• Mexican buses may not be inspected during peak periods;
  
• it isn't mandatory for inspectors to record the vehicle identification number (VIN) and year of manufacture;
  
• Mexico has no laboratories certified to do drug and alcohol testing so all samples must be sent to the US.
  

Never mind that a FBI intelligence report of the Joint Terrorism Task Force reported that an illegal human-smuggling ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year after reckoning that it was more lucrative (at $20K-$25K a pop) to smuggle Iraqis than Mexicans.

And, let's not take into account experiences and warnings the Congressional Research Service documented, or the actions Congress took:

• On March 23, 2005, George Bush hosted meetings in Texas with President Fox and Prime Minister Martin, in which the leaders established the trilateral “Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America.” The SPP will seek to advance the common security and the common prosperity of the countries through expanded cooperation and harmonization of policies.
  
  
• According to the Department of Homeland Security, from FY2001 to FY2005, there were 144 border incursions by the Mexican military. Dialogue with the Mexican military has reduced the frequency of such incursions by half. (Never mind that we're "dialoguing" with bordering military invaders but can't do that with Middle Eastern nations with disparate political views, whom we would rather provoke). A recent Mexican military border incursion netted US law enforcement 1,400 pounds of pot, later disavowed by the Mexican government as "drug traffickers, not Mexican military. (OK, pare that back to 143 border incursions, for the sake of "diplomacy"...)
  
  
• On January 26, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the discovery of a tunnel from Tijuana to a warehouse in San Diego. Mexican officials seized 2 tons of marijuana, and U.S. officials seized 200 pounds of marijuana. The 2,400-foot long tunnel is the longest tunnel ever found at the the U.S.-Mexican border.
  
  
• In testimony before the Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security on February 7, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar indicated that assaults against border patrol agents are increasing. In FY2005, 778 border patrol agents were assaulted, and 192 have been assaulted in FY2006. This is a significant increase from FY2004, when 374 border patrol agents were assaulted.
  
  
• National Intelligence Director John Negroponte named Mexico in his Annual Threat Assessment for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as a country of concern regarding the capacity of drug trafficking organizations to undermine already weak state authority.
  
  
• On December 16, 2005, the House passed H.R. 4437 (Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005) that would, among other things, strengthen border security, compel employers to use a pilot system to check for employment eligibility, mandate retention of illegal immigrants, make it a crime to be in the United States illegally or to assist illegal aliens, and require the deployment of a fence and surveillance equipment along the Mexico-U.S. border.
  
  
• On May 12, 2005, (Former) President Fox stated that his government would protest the recently passed immigration measures in the FY2005 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, saying that “it is useless to pursue walls, barriers, and the use of force and violence.”
  

And the current Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, recently reinforced that assertion, saying that would continue to "energetically protest unilateral actions" of the U.S. Congress on the immigration front that "exacerbate the persecution of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S." He boasted that Mexican consulates in the United States have been fortified to protect the rights of millions of Mexicans living there illegally.

"Wherever there is a Mexican," he said, "that is Mexico."

It's not about a Bush-supported invasion of our national sovereignty to ingratiate him to his corporate masters in contravention of our national Constitution, though, or as his father, Bush, Sr. asserted, "the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order," it's about "free trade," right?