USA Today: Mexican trucks poised to ride into U.S.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-04-mexican-trucks_N.htm

By Sean Holstege, The Arizona Republic
PHOENIX — Mexican freight trucks could begin plying highways throughout the United States as early as Thursday, when the U.S. Department of Transportation is set to issue operating permits to Mexican firms.

But the nation's highways are not likely to be overrun by Mexican trucks.


Mexican trucks make their way into the United States at the Bridge of the Americas port of entry's inspection area in June 2004, in El Paso, Texas. The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court Thursday to let Mexican cargo trucks cross the border and travel freely anywhere in the country, arguing that to do otherwise could strain diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico.
By Rudy Gutierrez, El Paso Times via AP


An Arizona Republic analysis of federal data shows that only 31 Mexican firms have been screened to operate in the U.S. interior. That means no more than 134 drivers and 151 trucks could go beyond the 25-mile commercial zone along the border.

RELATED: Teamsters to try to block Mexican trucks

The plan to allow Mexican truckers to drive into the U.S. interior faces legal challenges. Mexican trucks have not been allowed deep into the country since 1982.

Critics say the one-year experiment to test the free-trade measure will unleash a flood of dangerous trucks. It would, they say, increase illegal immigration and drug smuggling and threaten to expose the country to terrorists.

In court filings, the government says only two firms could operate on the first day, one in Tijuana and one in a Monterrey suburb.

The cross-border trucking plan has prompted a war of words and legal papers between the Bush administration and Jim Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

FULL story at link.

[eagler]

1. This could get ugly real soon.

[phillysuse]

2. What about the terrorists?

How do we know that Al Qaeda operatives won't pretend to be Mexican truckers and get into the country this way?

All those brown people with mustaches look alike to me.

[daninthemoon]

4. Don't be silly. They're building a giant wall to stop those guys.

[Bitwit1234]

3. And Homeland Security along with bush are protecting us"""??

By allowing these trucks in they are opening more than Pandora's box.