Trumpist Gov. Gregg Abbott (Insurrection-TX) has cost his state and the U.S. economy millions of dollars with his border blockade of trucks entering the U.S. from Mexico. The stunt began roughly a week ago, with Abbott directing state officials to redundantly inspect trucks despite Federal inspectors already performing inspections. Abbott said the slowdown was to force Mexico to slow down immigration into his state and curb illegal drug trafficking, but was widely seen as a blunder as industries from food, to auto manufacturing, to computer parts suffered from Abbott's disruption. There was no seizure of drugs or migrants as a result of the state's inspections. Abbott finally caved to pressure from business groups and industries that lost time and product as a result of his stunt, and suspended the state inspections after getting meaningless "security agreements" from bordering Mexican jurisdictions as a cover.
Dem gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke correctly noted that Abbott, facing voters in November, was trying to score political points with his base:
“Abbott is the arsonist who torched the Texas economy by shutting down trade with Mexico to score cheap political points,” he said. “Now he wants credit for putting out the fire by announcing these ridiculous ‘security agreements.’ Texans aren’t buying it and we'll never forget the chaos Abbott has caused to our economy and our border communities.”
Abbott's border blockade follows another stunt aimed at riling his base, the busing of undocumented immigrants to Washington, D.C., after the Biden Administration announced the ending of expulsions under Title 42. All of the undocumented immigrants had already been processed by U.S. customs officials, exposing the performance art nature of Abbott's election year theatrics.
(photo: A mild laxative might help, Gov. Sergio Flores, AFP/Getty Images)
