White House Slams Texas' Campaign to Keep Title 42 Border Policy

Neil MunroApril 13, 2022

The White House is denouncing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s strategy of using truck safety checks to pressure President Joe Biden into keeping the Title 42 border policy.

A Wednesday morning statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki said:

Governor Abbott’s unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs, and raising prices for families

The economic disruptions may create political pressure on Biden to extend the Title 42 barrier. The pressure may come from U.S. businesses and from the Mexican government, which exports much fresh food and outsourced manufacturing into the United States.

The White House statement pushed back by highlighting opposition from businesses in Texas against Abbott’s safety-check strategy:

Local businesses and trade associations are calling on Governor Abbott to reverse this decision because trucks are facing lengthy delays exceeding 5 hours at some border crossings and commercial traffic has dropped by as much as 60 percent. The continuous flow of legitimate trade and travel and CBP’s ability to do its job should not be obstructed. Governor Abbott’s actions are impacting people’s jobs, and the livelihoods of hardworking American families.

Abbott has repeatedly protested Biden’s pro-migration policies, which have released at least one million migrants across the border since January 2020.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a news conference, March 10, 2022, in Weslaco, Texas. (Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP, File)

The government-invited flood of economic migrants has spiked crime and deaths throughout Texas and is helping to lower wages and raise rents for millions of Texans and people in other states. The inflow is expected to worsen once Biden’s deputies lift the Title 42 policy in late May.

“The Biden Administration’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous cartels and deadly drugs to pour into the United States, and this crisis will only be made worse by ending Title 42 expulsions,” Abbott said at an April 6 press event. He added:

With the end of Title 42 expulsions looming next month, Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border. The new strategies announced today and next week will further strengthen our already robust response to the Biden border disaster, and we will use any and all lawful powers to curtail the flow of drugs, human traffickers, illegal immigrants, weapons, and other contraband into Texas.

Abbot signed the safety directive on April 6, telling the Texas Department of Public Safety:

As you have explained, the cartels that smuggle illicit contraband and people across our southern border do not care about the condition of the vehicles they send into Texas any more than they care who overdoses from the deadly fentanyl on board. In response to this threat, which is projected to grow in the coming months, I hereby direct the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to conduct enhanced safety inspections of vehicles as they cross international ports of entry into Texas. These inspections should begin immediately to help ensure that Texans are not endangered by unsafe vehicles and their unsafe drivers.

Texas is legally entitled to conduct safety checks on trucks that operate within Texas — but it has no legal authority to impede border traffic.

Texas safety checks, however, are impeding border traffic, according to FreightWaves.com:

Due to the added measures, truck drivers in Mexico reportedly are waiting in line for inspection as long as 15 hours without food, water or access to bathrooms.

“We’re desperate because we have to wait up to 15 hours to cross into the United States,” truck driver Pedro Gonzalez told Reuters Monday during the protest at El Paso’s Zaragoza bridge.

The Ysleta/Zaragoza port of entry is the main bridge for commercial trucks crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso and saw about $5.3 billion in trade during February.

A pair of migrant families from Brazil passes through a gap in the border wall to reach the United States after crossing from Mexico in Yuma, Ariz., to seek asylum. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)

“There’s no good reason for [Biden to remove Title 42] other than he wants more illegals here to vote,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Breitbart News on April 5. “He’s not enforcing federal law. He’s not following his constitutional duty.”

“It’s a complete betrayal of the American people,” he continued. “The consequences to our country are great. If you just take the fentanyl overdose increases, they’re up like 30 percent … that doesn’t count the social costs along the border that people who are dealing with this every day and the fear that they have of being harmed.”