SANTA TERESA, New Mexico — As a political rift between Texas and Mexico grows, this tiny port of entry in New Mexico is reaping the benefits, doubling the...
Truck traffic in the Santa Teresa border crossing has doubled in the past 10 years amid concerns about enhanced inspections ordered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“It kind of accelerated the interest in investing in this port because we proved ourselves to be a reliever route,” said Pacheco, explaining that Santa Teresa has run out of its 6 million square feet of warehousing for exporting and importing companies and is now waiting for additional space to be built. “We proved ourselves capable of keeping commerce going even when there are disruptions.”
. New Mexico officials last week met Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard at the port of entry at San Jerónimo, Mexico. He pledged upgrades to the infrastructure for this port of entry across from New Mexico in preparation for what he called “tremendous growth.” Ebrard said the Mexican federal government will fund improvements to grow commercial truck crossings at Santa Teresa from 1,500 to 4,000 a day. Overall, Mexico has earmarked more than $1.5 billion to expand ports of entry, add lanes and improve logistics along the 2,000-mile Mexican border with the United States by the end of 2023.
Mexico’s announcement underscores the feud with Abbott’s inspections. The move was widely criticized as being financially damaging and a big punch to Texas’s No. 1 trading partner. “Let’s be clear. It was an average of five-hour delay, and that’s minuscule when you compare it to the 18-month delay by the administration to step up and do anything about securing the border,” he said, adding that the inspections were designed to check the safety of vehicles.A report from Waco-based researcher Perryman Group stated that, $1.3 billion in El Paso alone.