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You're right about that. It's cheaper for them to not have insurance and risk getting caught then to pay for it. We know people who have been hit by illegals who ran from the scene and abandoned the junk vehicles they were driving. Here's an old article that provides insight about the ever-growing benefits (not) of NAFTA, which unchallenged would have permitted these vehicles free run in the USA:

Bush To Allow Mexican Trucks in US - February 7, 2001 (OA)
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By SUZANNE GAMBOA
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush stands by his position that free trade obligates the United States to open its highways to Mexican trucks, the White House said Wednesday. He is reviewing how to do so after a trade panel ruled that keeping the trucks out violated the North American Free Trade Agreement.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said that Bush, in keeping with a view he outlined during the campaign, is committed to letting Mexican trucks in and is focused on ensuring that the American public does not share roadways with unsafe Mexican trucks. He has made no decisions, Buchan said.

``One thing I want to stress that it pointed out in the report is that the NAFTA rules in no way inhibit the U.S. ability to set our own highway safety standards and the safety standards the drivers must abide by,'' Buchan said. ``The president has indicated that he does think the NAFTA trucking provision should be implemented. We haven't made decisions yet on how to do it but the report indicated we may use our U.S. highway safety standards.''

The Transportation Department said 35 percent of Mexican trucks that entered the United States last year were put out of service for significant safety violations.

An official from the U.S. Trade Representative's Office did not say how authorities would keep unsafe trucks from entering the country, but said Bush ``has made clear he believes the NAFTA trucking provisions should be implemented.''

Pedro Cerisola, Mexico's communications and transport secretary, said he welcomed the decision and said his agency would work with truckers on how to take advantage of the opening.

Another Mexican official, Deputy Transport Minister Aaron Dychter, said 184 Mexican trucking firms have applied to transport cargo across the border into the United States. He said Mexico has now ``harmonized'' its safety standards to meet those of the United States.

NAFTA, the trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, called for Mexican trucks to have unrestricted access to highways in border states - Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona - by 1995 and full access to all U.S. highways by January 2000.

The Clinton administration, citing safety concerns, but also under pressure from unions representing U.S. truckers, refused to implement the provisions.

Canada has a truck inspection program similar to the U.S. system, and its truckers are allowed access to all U.S. roadways.

Mexico has no such system, and its trucks are allowed only within a 20-mile zone north of the border, where they transfer their loads to American trucks. Mexico estimates that about 14,000 trucks cross the border daily and that it has lost about $2 billion because of the U.S. policy.

About 70 percent of the approximately 5 million trucks entering the United States every year come through Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety, which is responsible for truck safety inspections, says it inspects about 1 percent of those trucks.

A report issued Tuesday by the consumer group Public Citizen and its sister organization, Global Trade Watch, found that Texas border communities have seen a dramatic increase in highway fatalities and serious injuries from crashes involving trucks with Mexican registrations.

``It is imperative that we continue to limit access for these dangerous trucks even if it means paying trade sanctions,'' said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen.

The American Trucking Associations applauded the panel's decision.

``ATA strongly believes that motor carriers operating in the United States, no matter what their nationality, must abide by U.S. safety standards,'' said president Walter McCormick Jr.

The NAFTA arbitration panel included two Americans, two Mexicans and a neutral member from the United Kingdom.