Mexican Trucks Get the Go Ahead

Another sad day in history as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a request by the Teamsters and other groups to halt the Bush Administrations test program allowing Mexican trucks to haul goods on U.S. highways.

The Bush administration can go ahead with their pilot program that will allow as many as 100 Mexican trucking companies to freely haul their cargo across the border and anywhere within the U.S. for the next year, a federal appeals court ruled late Friday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request made by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and the nonprofit Public Citizen to halt the program. The appeals court ruled the groups have not satisfied the legal requirements to immediately stop what the government is calling a "demonstration project", but can continue to argue their case.

The trucking program is scheduled to begin Thursday. In court papers filed earlier this week, the Teamsters and Sierra Club argued there won't be enough oversight of the drivers coming into the U.S. from Mexico, and that public safety would be endangered in a hasty attempt by the government to comply with parts of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The trade agreement requires that all roads in the United States, Mexico and Canada to be opened to carriers from all three countries. Canadian trucking companies have full access to U.S. roads, but Mexican trucks can only travel about 20 miles inside the country at certain border crossings like in San Diego and El Paso, Texas.

As an informed citizen of Arizona I can only hope nothing bad comes from this, however knowing all the we do about Mexico, I feel afraid for my fellow drivers out on the road. I think this will prove to be a huge mistake that will be evident by more drugs in the U.S., more illegal aliens being brought in and put in stash houses by the coyotes and more truck related road accidents then ever before. I hope I am wrong, but I feel it seems to be the future with the current administration.

Drive careful and keep your eye's open!