drewhill.net

I recently received this reply from my U.S. Senator, Claire McCaskill about the cross-border trucking program. 

Dear Mr. Hill:

Thank you for your letter regarding cross-border trucking with Mexico. I appreciate hearing from you, and I welcome the chance to respond.Like you, I have serious concerns about the “long haul” cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico, which began September 6th. I understand that the United States has certain obligations under treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. However, the federal government has the fundamental obligation to protect the safety of its citizenry. In my view, the Department of Transportation has not done enough to ensure that its pilot program will not endanger motorists on our highways. The Department of Transportation’s (DoT) plan would allow up to 1,000 Mexican trucks to make international deliveries to any destination in the United States, with the expectation that this program would be opened to all Mexican trucking companies when the pilot program ends after one year. The DoT said it will inspect every truck and check every driver in the program, both in Mexico and every time they crossed the border. However, the DoT’s Inspector General found that the agency did not have the plans in place to inspect all trucks at the border or adequate access to information in Mexico. In spite of this finding, the DoT cleared the first Mexican carrier to make U.S. deliveries within an hour of receiving the Inspector General’s report.

Despite public outrage and congressional opposition, the Bush administration is committed to allowing Mexican trucks to operate deeply inside the U.S.   These new rules go into effect this week.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement approved broader access for ground shipments from both countries.   The Clinton administration didn’t comply with the trucking provision and Mexico does not yet allow U.S. truckers into Mexico.

Mexican trucks operating in the United States have for years been restricted to a 25 mile zone around large border crossings where the truck loads are transferred to trucks owned by U.S. firms.

The trucking problem is two fold.   The main issue being not that the trucks and drivers are Mexican.  But, it is a lack of trust in the U.S. government to properly secure the U.S. border and ensure that the Mexican trucking companies comply with safety, licensing and training of Mexican truckers.

A secondary issue is that without proper over site by the U.S. government the Mexican trucking companies will most certainly hire low paid Mexican truck drivers unable to read U.S. road signs to haul loads from deep inside the Mexican interior into the U.S. putting U.S. drivers at risk by over worked, non-english speaking drivers.

The Mexican trucking issue is in light of a recent Customs and Border Protection memo dated August 16 that directs Custom Officers to abbreviate national security checks to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico.  The memo says that if the wait time is 60 minutes or more, which is the average wait at the numerous border crossings, custom agents are to query only the driver and ensure that the license plate is correct.  What kind of security check is this?  Are other passengers not checked?  Is cargo not verified?  Are trucks and vehicles not checked for drugs and human smuggling?

The U.S. government is totally incompetent in securing the U.S. Mexican border.  The U.S. Congress and Bush Administration must take action to secure our border.