Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca sits next to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a press conference Friday at the Texas Department of Public Safety offices in Weslaco.

Delcia Lopez | [email protected]

WESLACO — Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday he would halt the enhanced inspection policy that wreaked havoc on commercial traffic along the U.S.-Mexico border and led to the shutdown of the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge.

During a news conference in Weslaco on Friday, Abbott and Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca agreed to work together to secure the border. One commitment includes Tamaulipas working to contain low-water crossings, while enhanced inspections will end immediately.

“In particular, Tamaulipas will provide the personnel, resources and tactics to stem the flow of illegal immigrants walking across the border at low-water crossings,” Abbott said.

The agreement will work “to reinforce border security measures in Tamaulipas, providing personnel, resources and strategies for the prevention of illegal crossings; reinforce checkpoints installed in Tula, Moralillo (Tampico), Periquitos (Reynosa), Gonzalez Villarreal (San Fernando) and Victoria; exchange information between the C5 in Reynosa and the Texas Department of Public Safety, in appropriate cases; and establish joint and recurring operations on the banks of Rio Bravo,” a news release from Tamaulipas explained.

Abbott cautioned DPS inspections could be reinstated at borders where agreements may falter.

“If those crossings resume or increase, it will signal the cartel-supported crossings have increased and that Texas must reinstate the more stringent vehicle inspection standard,” the Texas governor said.

Cabeza de Vaca is the latest of Mexican governors who have reached a similar agreement with Abbott.

Agreements have previously been forged with the governors of the Mexican border states after Abbott announced last week that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers would inspect every commercial truck that crossed into the U.S. to curb the illegal flow of drugs and people.

However, neither carried as much weight and consequence as the one signed Friday.

Nearly half of all border commerce enters through the 18 ports of entry of the Mexican border state, Cabeza de Vaca emphasized.

Criticism mounted from both sides of the aisle and across both countries. U.S. Customs and Border Protection called the move “unnecessary,” and stated it led to delays at the Pharr bridge lasting days.

As a result, truckers in Mexico staged a protest and effectively shut down the bridge, which is one of the busiest ports of entry for goods.

Industry leaders said those delays have caused the loss of more than $100 million in trade. Pharr city officials praised the Texas governor’s decision to reverse the inspections policy, noting that the delays created as much as $202 million in economic loss per day and “an estimated total trade value loss of $1 billion.”

“We completely understand the need for safety and security at the border. When we saw the impact that the Governor’s directive was having on our international commerce, causing significant delays and millions in economic losses, we knew we had to take immediate action and work with our partners to promote a swift resolution of the issue,” Pharr Mayor Ambrosio Hernandez said in the release.

Tamaulipas will be using public security funding for border security enhancements as part of the bilateral agreement but will focus their efforts to a particular region.

“Something worth pointing out is that the main problem we are having is in the frontera chica, that everyone knows — it’s the border with Roma, Rio Grande City — the movements of immigrants that we have detected unfortunately come from the Monterrey area and the metropolitan area,” Cabeza de Vaca said. “They do not go directly to the area of Colombia, not Acuña. They come and return to Tamaulipas territory, that is where we are going to put a stop and we are going to ask the Mexican authorities and the National Immigration Institute to pay more attention to the flow of immigrants that leave from the metropolitan area, which is the largest distribution center in the northeast of the country.”

Cabeza de Vaca, who, like Abbott, is also a border governor often opposing the federal administration of a contrary political party, placed blame on a lack of action from the Andres Manuel López Obrador administration for the current state of immigration.

“I think the message that Gov. Abbott sent was to the Mexican federal government, as well. Those are the ones who need to do something in the southern part of Mexico,” the Tamaulipas governor said. “It’s nothing new. We have been saying it for a long time. As a matter of fact, it’s been two years that I’ve been telling the federal Mexican government to do something at the southern border with Central America.”

The agreement came over a week after Abbott instituted the changes at the border on April 6. During that time, Cabeza de Vaca and the Coahuila governor sent a letter on April 12 asking the governor to reconsider and stop the “overzealous” inspections.

The Nuevo Leon and Chihuahua governors reached deals earlier in the week.

When asked about the delay, Cabeza de Vaca replied, “Why did we wait until today? Because of our agendas. It’s a subject that should be binational between federal governments, but now state governments are having to tend to these matters.”

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