GOP Political Stunt in Texas Results in Produce Losses Exceeding $200M

Under pressure from the business community, GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott raised the white flag, reversing his stunt that forced commercial vehicles to undergo unnecessary secondary inspections at ports of entry.  The unnecessary checks were performed after U.S. border officials had already conducted their inspections.  The failed political calculation, announced in retaliation for the Biden administration’s just decision to end Stephen Miller policy, was the target of intense bipartisan blow back after causing immense traffic delays and financial losses for food producers.

“A lot of our members are absolutely flabbergasted that this was allowed to happen and that it happened for so long for the sake of border security,” Texas International Produce Association President Dante Galeazzi told The Texas Tribune on Friday. “We feel like we were used as bargaining chips.”

Abbott had tried to save face during the manufactured crisis by staging photo-ops with several Mexican state governors.. But the agreements signed provided “little relief for the overall trade logjam,” The Texas Tribune reported at the time.  Three of the four Mexican governors said they will simply continue security measures they put in place before Abbott ordered the state inspections,” The Texas Tribune now reports.

The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety was forced to admit that the redundant checks “did not turn up any human or drug trafficking during the inspections,” the Associated Press reported.  Fresh Produce Association of the Americas President Lance Jungmeyer told CNN that the losses to vegetable and fruit producers alone were estimated at over $240 million. There are also the losses to the workers transporting this food, and the losses to consumers now facing higher food prices. 

“There’s only person that this helped, and that was Greg Abbott,” Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke said, adding: “For everyone else, this has been terrible. It’s sending prices through the roof, spiking inflation even higher in the state of Texas.”