|
Stop the Mexican Truck Invasion
Longtime activist calls on Americans to unite and call their congressmen
By Mark Anderson
A new proposal that allows Mexican truckers to make deliveries in their rigs throughout the United States is a stepping stone to the North American Union, a scheme to merge the United States with Canada and Mexico.
Now, anti-globalization activists are sounding the alarm, urging farm, labor and trucking advocates and other citizen groups to contact their senators and representatives in an effort to trounce this troubling proposal.
Alarmed by the Bush administration’s call for allowing Mexican truckers to go beyond the limited commercial zone where they currently exchange freight with U.S. truckers, retired agricultural foreign service worker Abner Deatherage is activating his National Grassroots Demonstration (NGD)—in which phone calls, faxes and personal visits to local congressional offices are utilized, instead of having the usual “march on Washington.”
This time, the NGD call-in takes place for two days March 12-13, which intensifies the pressure on “the patricians on the Potomac.”
Repeating the approach used during his last NGD in late January 2007, Deatherage makes key contacts in the farm, labor and trucking fields and urges them to use the phone-tree approach by calling their members, family, friends and anyone else who can help. Everyone taking part is encouraged to call their legislators themselves, especially on those two days, while urging others to do likewise in ever-widening circles.
Deatherage told AFP that it’s best for people to keep faxing, calling and visiting the district offices of their representatives and senators beyond March 12 and 13. He believes contacting the local offices is more effective than calling Capitol Hill.
Deatherage said that the trucking issue is especially urgent. Allowing Mexican truckers to deliver their freight anywhere in the United States—a proposal that many Americans fear will weaken national security and make the highways and roads less safe due to the often substandard condition of Mexican trucks—is part of a larger political scheme.
“This is a big step toward the North American Union, and by golly 
Deatherage said he has already been in touch with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the transportation subcommittee that started hearings on the Mexican trucking issue March 8.
Landline magazine, published by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, or OOIDA, noted on Feb. 27, 2007: “After years of roadblocks that all but prevented Mexico-domiciled trucks from operating throughout the U.S., the border will be opening to 100 Mexican motor carriers in two short months.”
On Feb. 22, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced that U.S. officials would be inspecting Mexican motor carriers in Mexico. A major sticking point keeping the border closed to Mexican-domiciled trucks has been “who will inspect the trucks and where they will be inspected before they are allowed into the states,” Landline noted.
Shortly after Peters’ announcement, OOIDA officials learned “that the pilot program was moving full-steam ahead, and that 100 Mexican-domiciled motor carriers were going to be allowed to operate freely within the U.S.,” Landline added.
“This has been a White House goal since President Bush was first elected,” OOIDA Vice President Todd Spencer told AFP. He said that while U.S. Transportation Department officials have made assurances that Mexican trucks and drivers will be held to the same strict standards adhered to by their American counterparts, OOIDA has its doubts.
“Based on our knowledge of how truckers operate in Mexico, they’re still sorely lacking,” Spencer added. “There’s no meaningful safety regime.”
Spencer understands that drug testing and hours-of operation regulations for truckers in Mexico are substandard and that Mexican truckers’ personal backgrounds from living and working in Mexico will not be known to U.S. authorities if and when the truckers start driving stateside.
Spencer noted that Mexican truckers have been known to use large auxiliary fuel tanks. He said it’s likely that they will fuel up in Mexico and be able to drive further into the United States without buying gas and paying the U.S. fuel taxes that finance the very highways that these truckers will use.
(Issue #12, March 19, 2007)
|
|
