Psaki: Abbott's border inspection rule disrupts supply chains and raises prices
A cargo truck waits to cross to the United States during a blockade at the Jeronimo-Santa Teresa international crossing on April 12. Photo: Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's new rule to inspect northbound vehicles for "causing significant disruptions."
Driving the news: "Gov. Abbott’s unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks ... are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country," Psaki said in a statement Wednesday.
- "The continuous flow of legitimate trade and travel and CBP’s ability to do its job should not be obstructed. Gov. Abbott’s actions are impacting people’s jobs, and the livelihoods of hard-working American families," she said.
The big picture: Abbott last week ordered state troopers to conduct additional inspections of commercial trucks in response to the Biden administration's announcement that it would lift Title 42, a pandemic-era public health policy to rapidly expel migrants at the border, in late May.
- Abbott said that drug cartels use commercial vehicles to smuggle humans and drugs into the United States, the Texas Tribune reports.
- Commercial truckers, businesses and local trade associations are protesting Abbott's new rule, Axios' Astrid Galván reports.
- Dante L. Galeazzi, CEO and president of the Texas International Produce Association, wrote in a letter to Abbott that the policy "has wreaked havoc up and down our supply chain and is likely to leave state store shelves with limited fresh produce supplies."
Go deeper: Truckers block Texas border crossing to protest Gov. Abbott's new rules