Thread: Mexican trucks allowed in U.S. despite ban

Mexican trucks allowed in U.S. despite ban

Mexican 18-wheelers are being allowed deep into the U.S. interior, despite legislation last year to end funding for a pilot program authorizing the trucks to travel freely.
By DAVE MONTGOMERY
dmontgomery@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is allowing Mexican trucks to continue to travel deep into the United States despite what critics say is a congressional mandate to ban the trucks from U.S. highways.

Congress voted last year to halt funding for a pilot program that allows Mexican 18-wheelers to begin traveling freely into the United States as part of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. The Department of Transportation contends, however, that the congressional action permits the current program to continue while banning any new program.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the DOT agency that regulates the program, quietly acknowledged last week that the program is still under way, adding that it has issued permits to 11 Mexican companies with a total of 56 trucks. Mexican trucks previously were confined to a 25-mile border zone.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a letter Thursday to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, scoffed at that interpretation and called on the Bush administration to end the program immediately.

`SERIOUS MISTAKE'

''The DOT response is both arrogant and wrong!'' Dorgan wrote. ``The Department of Transportation is making a serious mistake if it believes it is not required to abide by this legislation.''

The 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents U.S. long-haul truckers, expressed outrage at the administration and vowed to press ahead with a lawsuit against the program, which is pending in a federal appeals court in San Francisco.

''We're not happy,'' Teamsters spokeswoman Leslie Miller said. ``We believe they are breaking the law.''

Under the program, launched this fall, up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican companies could travel into the U.S. interior over the next year.

The agreement also allows 100 U.S. companies to send their trucks beyond a restrictive border zone in Mexico. Four U.S. companies with a total of 41 trucks have been cleared to travel into the Mexican interior.

More than 500 inspectors have been deployed to enforce safety, vehicle and driver standards, said Melissa Mazzella DeLaney, a spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

DeLaney said the Mexican companies had made 71 crossings into the U.S. interior as of Dec. 11. The U.S. companies, she said, have made 144 crossings into Mexico.

''It's something U.S. companies have never had the opportunity before to do,'' she said.

''There have been no incidents,'' DeLaney said of the Mexican trucks. ``They are the most vetted, the most scrutinized and the most inspected trucks on American roads today.''

She didn't have a cost breakdown but said the Transportation Department budget paid for the program.

With lawmakers in both parties widely opposing the initiative, Congress clearly intended to strip out money for the program in a $106 billion housing and transportation funding bill that President Bush signed Dec. 26, Dorgan said.

The legislation said: ``None of the funds made available under this act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico.''

Dorgan released an opinion by Senate legislative counsel Polly W. Craighill asserting that the legislation was intended ''to preclude the carrying out of any demonstration program, including the pilot program put into effect in September of 2007.'' Dorgan sponsored a funding-cutoff amendment that passed the Senate 74-24.

The latest furor over the controversial program erupted after Dorgan learned of the DOT statement, which received limited attention during the holiday season. Under the 2008 funding measure, the DOT said, it will ''not establish any new demonstration programs with Mexico.'' But it added: ``The current cross-border trucking demonstration project -- established in September -- will continue to operate in a manner that puts safety first.''

PROGRAM MONITORED

The Bush administration and allies in Congress contend that the program will be monitored rigidly and is necessary to fulfill the 13-year-old free-trade agreement that expanded commerce among the United States, Mexico and Canada.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/ ... 66683.html

Ron Paul has said he wouldn't allow these trucks to come into our country. That it's a security risk and it takes away American jobs and it opens the door for more illegal aliens.

I'm liking Ron Paul better everyday.

Yep, agreed.

And, here's the part that rubs me the wrong way -

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in a letter Thursday to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, scoffed at that interpretation and called on the Bush administration to end the program immediately.

OK, I'm honestly very glad that Dorgan has come out and said this - he's doing the right thing (again).

Where are the other weasels in the Senate on this? Hmmm, your silence is deafening...

Stuff your program, who inspected the truck that had 37 illegal immigrants in the back of it????

We all need to e-mail Dorgan so he will get on this and be sure he knows about the illegals in the back of the semi...could have been a dirty bomb!

NOTICE:

ILLEGALS
CATCH A SEMI TO THE US!
CROSS THE BORDER WITH PRODUCE IN AIR-CONDITIONED COMFORT!
DESTINATION--NO PROBLEM, WE TRAVEL EVERYWHERE!!!!!

DRUG CARTELS
SHIP IN QUANITY!

See this thread:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-96330-illegals.html+truck

swatchick wrote:
http://cbs4.com/national/illegal.immigr ... 20284.html
Dozens Of Suspected Illegals Found In Truck
CBS News Interactive: Immigration And Naturalization
PHOENIX (AP) ― Authorities on Sunday found 37 suspected illegal immigrants concealed in a truck, some hiding behind pallets of bell peppers.

Police found the immigrants while investigating a tip about a tractor-trailer parked in the middle of the road in suburban Tolleson. They initially discovered a dozen people in the truck.

Later, an officer noticed the pallets did not go all the way to the back of the semitrailer.

Police climbed up, and spotted 23 people behind the bell peppers. Two more were found hiding nearby in an abandoned trailer. In all, 37 immigrants were found, including five children, Sgt. Lisa Mendoza said.

They were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An agency spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment Sunday.

Investigators believe the smugglers of the illegal immigrants got away.

Tolleson is about 10 miles west of Phoenix.

Does the US provide a translator to ride along with each Mexican driver? Wouldn't surprise me.

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion." Article IV Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

Thanks for putting that article back up "MyAmerica" I sent this to about 10 of our best Senators...

Dear Senator Sessions,

I believe this is one of the trucks supposedly being inspected by DOT, in fact one of the trucks that should not even be crossing the 25 mile zone. Somebody needs to be held accountable for this, I'd say the head of the DOT who defied congress by doing as she simply pleased, like our congress does not even exist. Americans are fed up with these kind of people in our government, we want them out!

Best Regards.
XXX

http://cbs4.com/national/illegal.immigr ... 20284.html

Dozens Of Suspected Illegals Found In Truck
CBS News Interactive: Immigration And Naturalization
PHOENIX (AP) ― Authorities on Sunday found 37 suspected illegal immigrants concealed in a truck, some hiding behind pallets of bell peppers.

Police found the immigrants while investigating a tip about a tractor-trailer parked in the middle of the road in suburban Tolleson. They initially discovered a dozen people in the truck.

Later, an officer noticed the pallets did not go all the way to the back of the semitrailer.

Police climbed up, and spotted 23 people behind the bell peppers. Two more were found hiding nearby in an abandoned trailer. In all, 37 immigrants were found, including five children, Sgt. Lisa Mendoza said.

They were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An agency spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment Sunday.

Investigators believe the smugglers of the illegal immigrants got away.

Tolleson is about 10 miles west of Phoenix.


Everybody should send this to at least your own congressmen....This is a huge issue that is connected with the illegal immigration problem.

Canadian truckers have to obey the same rules as US truckers. Why don't the Mexican truckers?

| Print More Mexican Trucks To Travel On U.S. Highways
WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Bush administration is going ahead with a controversial pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways.

Language in a recently signed catchall spending bill is aimed at blocking the four-month-old program.

But the government says the new rules don't apply to the current program since it was started in September.

The program is opposed by labor, independent truck owners and environmental groups. It permits up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican motor carriers full access to U.S. roads.

Opponents say the measure will erode highway safety and eliminate U.S. jobs.

Supporters say letting more Mexican trucks on U.S. highways will save American consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Teamsters Union, Sierra Club and Public Citizen sued last August to block the program.

A hearing is scheduled February 12th before a federal appeals court in San Francisco.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
http://cbs2.com/local/bush.administrati ... 23393.html

BULLETIN: DOT making ‘serious mistake’ with cross-border program Friday, Jan. 4, 2008 – The lawmaker behind legislation that cut the funding of the cross-border program with Mexico says the move by the Bush administration to continue the program is both “arrogant and wrong.â€