Lawsuit: Mexican-domiciled trucks on U.S. roadways
According to Public Citizen, a lawsuit filed in the 9th Circuit seeks to stop an Administration-backed pilot program that would allow Mexican-domiciled trucks to gain access to U.S. roadways and thus violate U.S. law while also raising safety and environmental concerns.
Mexico-domiciled motor carriers currently are permitted to operate in the U.S. only in specified commercial zones along the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The Bush administration has for years been pushing to give Mexico-domiciled carriers access to all U.S. highways despite safety and environmental concerns expressed by public interest groups, unions representing truck drivers and lawmakers.
In the suit, the groups contend that the pilot program violates a law Congress passed in May requiring, among other things, that the administration publish information about the inspections of Mexico-domiciled carriers that will operate beyond the narrow border zone and provide for public comment, that simultaneous and comparable authority be granted to U.S. carriers to operate in Mexico, and that the pilot program involve a sufficient number of participants to yield statistically valid findings so that an informed judgment may be made regarding whether to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks to operate freely within U.S. borders. None of these conditions has been met.