Say Anything Blog

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, was a treaty passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton.  One of the provisions of that treaty to help enable the free flow of trade on this continent was to allow Mexican trucks carrying loads of Mexican goods to deliver to destinations inside the United States.  Previous to the agreement, Mexican truckers had to drop those loads at the border so they could be picked up by unionized American truckers.

This access was to have been granted to Mexican truckers by the year 2000.  Currently, Mexican truckers have only been granted on a limited basis due to opposition from union lackeys in Congress who don’t want to see the coddled Teamster’s union lose business to Mexican drivers.  Now Congress has tried to stop even that limited access by de-funding the program that was allowing some of the Mexican trucks in.

President Bush, however, has pushed ahead to enforce the provisions of NAFTA even over Congress’ objections.

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.

’‘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.’‘

Of course, the Teamsters don’t care about the law in the form of the treaty our nation signed with Mexico.  They only care about the law when it serves their interests.  Sort of like how the Teamsters’ union colleagues who support amnesty for illegal immigrants based on the assumption that once those illegals are legal they’ll all be converted into dues-paying union members.

For the hypocrites in the unions, illegal immigration is ok because it serves their interests.  Mexican truckers crossing our southern border with our permission and under our supervision in order to engage in perfectly legal acts of commerce isn’t ok with them because it doesn’t serve their purpose.

Now, I realize that many are concerned that allowing Mexican truckers cross our southern border is a security risk.  Union activists have even gone so far as to suggest that the Mexican trucks aren’t up to our DOT safety standards.  This isn’t true.

For one, the Mexican trucks and truckers have to comply with every American transportation law and regulation just as American truckers do.  Thus, these Mexican trucks are no less safe than their American counterparts.  For another, a Mexican truck coming through the border under the auspices of NAFTA is not the ideal way for illegal immigrants to come into the country.  After all, why would they risk coming across on a truck that is sure to be heavily inspected when they could just sprint across the border at any of the other largely remote and unguarded sections of our border?

Plus, allowing Mexico this increased access to our economy is one step toward stemming the tide of illegal immigrants.  Keep in mind that one big reason why Mexicans immigrate illegally is because the economic conditions in their country is atrocious.  If we help improve Mexico’s economy by increasing its exposure to our economy we remove some of the impetus Mexicans have to jump the border.

Put simply, this particular provision of NAFTA not only helps our economy by bringing Mexican goods to market in a cheaper and more efficient manner it also helps Mexico’s economy by giving their market greater access to our market.  Something that, in turn, helps the illegal immigration issue.