DALLAS — Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the last of the stepped-up vehicle inspections on Friday that snarled traffic at the Texas-Mexico border and drew intense pushback from businesses leaders. But the Republican warned that he would not hesitate to bring back the inspections that created hours of traffic delays if the leaders of four Mexican states that border Texas don’t do their part to slow illegal immigration.
“If there’s not a slowdown in illegal immigration there will be a reimplementation,” Abbott said at a news conference in Weslaco. “A consequence of that is financial pain, that financial pain is necessary to get the public to insist their government leaders, such as presidents of two countries involved, take the action that is needed to solve this problem.”
Texas lost an estimated $477 million a day during Abbott’s enhanced border security checks, says noted and independent Texas economist Ray Perryman, president and CEO of the Perryman Group, citing preliminary data that he plans to issue in a new study next week.
