Free Republic

SAN DIEGO (CBS) — Union and trucking industry leaders joined a pair of Southland lawmakers on Wednesday to warn Americans about a potential economic fallout if Mexican trucks are allowed to travel unchecked across the border. Reps. Bob Filner (D-San Diego), and Duncan D. Hunter (R-El Cajon) joined James Hoffa of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Todd Spencer, the owner-operator of the Independent Drivers Association, to voice their concerns over the bilateral pilot project that is set to roll into the U.S. interior within days. The bipartisan group argues that allowing Mexican trucking companies to travel into the U.S....

Anyone worried that, once in charge, Democrats wouldn't be vigilant in protecting our southern border can relax. The grave threat of Mexican long-haul truckers has been shut down. With any luck, Mexicans will never have the temerity to attempt to deliver commercial goods into the United States again. At least such is the fervid hope of the Teamsters, the fiercest adversary the Mexicans have faced since President James K. Polk sent Winfield Scott south in the Mexican-American War. The union can't abide Mexican trucks because they represent competition, and so they must be blocked - legal obligations, economic rationality and...

Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the U.S. under a Bush administration demonstration project may not be proficient in English, despite Department of Transportation assurances to the contrary. A brochure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website instructs Mexican truck drivers, "Did you know … You MUST be able to read and speak English to drive trucks in the United States." Still, at the Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and DOT Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III reluctantly admitted under intense questioning from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that Mexican drivers were being...

It is this reporter's opinion that in another display of the power of American citizens working together, we have stopped an invasion on our nation’s highways by Mexican trucks. The debate over Mexican trucks pouring into the United States has been waged in Congress, in the courts, in protests, at the border, and on the presidential campaign trail. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed in 1993, there has been a push to permit Mexican long-haul trucks to enter the United States. But now the United States Senate has voted to eliminate federal funding for the Mexican...

The first Mexican truck authorized by a Bush administration program opening U.S. highways to trucking companies from south of the border crossed into the U.S. this morning at approximately 1:50 a.m. EDT at Laredo, Texas, headed for North Carolina, according to a report from Trucker.com. WND research indicates Transportes Olympic, the Mexican trucking firm sending this morning's tractor trailer north, was actually selected to be the first across the border nearly six months ago, despite the administration's "last-minute" announcement of the carrier earlier this week – a revelation that has been described as an example of "stealth." The designation of...

The Bush administration urged a federal appeals court Thursday to let Mexican cargo trucks cross the border and freely travel anywhere in the country, arguing that to do otherwise could strain diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico. The Teamsters Union on Wednesday asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the program, which could go into effect as early as Saturday. The union argues that the administration plan, which would let as many as 100 registered Mexican trucks deliver their cargo anywhere in the country for the next year as part of a "demonstration program," would endanger...