More Inspectors Needed at Border, DOT Report Finds
The report, issued in response to requests from Rep. James Oberstar (R-Minn.) and Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), blasts DOT for inadequate personnel and plans for the border in the face of a 36% out-of-service rate for Mexican trucks, and the planned opening of the border by January 1, 2002.
The two lawmakers requested an update on Feb. 6 of the IG’s original 1998 report on the border, apparently in reaction to the issuance of the North American Free Trade Agreement arbitration panel ruling that the U.S. had violated the agreement by failing to open the U.S.-Mexico border to Mexican trucks.
The new report criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration because it has no implementation plan for inspecting Mexican vehicles at border sites. In addition, the IG said that the agency must increase the number of full-time enforcement personnel at the border by a minimum of 133%.
The findings have become the ammunition of groups opposing the opening of the U.S-Mexico border to Mexican trucks, which the DOT says it will do by January 1, 2002.
The 1998 IG recommendations called for a minimum level of 132 DOT inspectors at the border. Currently, DOT has 60 inspectors, and although Secretary Norman Mineta has asked for funding to increase border staffing by 80 people, not everyone will be inspectors.
Out-of-service rates for Mexican trucks stood have dropped from 45% in 1997 to 36% last year, according to the IG.
