Before getting to the heart of the issue, let’s dispense with the familiar bad motives at either extreme. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott was his usual subtle self. He described the bill, which will subject Mexican truckers to various insurance and inspection requirements before they enter the United States, as “anti-Mexican” and “anti-Hispanic.”
It’s touching to see Lott emerge as a champion of the rights of minorities, but his transparent aim here is to give the Democrats a little taste of their own medicine. Recall that in the mid-1990s the GOP found itself on the wrong side of the immigration issue and lost millions of Hispanic votes as a result, particularly in California. While Bush offers a more positive message to woo Hispanics, Lott is trying to make the other side look racist. (I guess that makes the 19 Republican senators who joined the 50 Democrats racists, too). When the shoe was on the other foot, Tom Daschle never talked that way.
At the other extreme are organized labor and other diehard opponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They don’t want Mexican truckers competing with American teamsters and will use any excuse to thwart the treaty. It’s this crowd, mostly Democrats, that managed to get into the House version a complete ban on Mexican trucks beyond a 20-mile zone along the border. Fortunately, the Senate conferees are expected to take this provision out. It’s a direct violation of NAFTA and a slap in the face of Mexican President Vicente Fox.
But if Bush vetoes a bill that provides for strict standards, he’ll be making a terrible mistake-for himself and the country. The unfortunate fact is that many Mexican trucks are not safe. The inspector general of the Department of Transportation recently found that 40 percent of Mexican trucks failed basic safety inspection, compared with 14 percent of Canadian trucks. (The figure for American trucks is 25 percent). In other words, close to half of the Mexican trucks that Bush would allow in are vehicles that you wouldn’t want to be stuck behind in traffic.
Bush is essentially arguing that it’s unfair to make the safe Mexican truckers pay more in time and insurance expense because others from south of the border aren’t so careful. He’s almost making it seem like racial profiling or something (though he doesn’t support legislation to outlaw that practice). But if the president took his argument to its logical extension-if all travelers from all over the world had to be treated just like Canadians-the U.S. would be forced to totally rethink its approach to customs. Food safety and disease prevention, for instance, would take a back seat to equity. Bad idea.
Moreover, the Bush White House-hungry for Hispanic votes-has not thought hard enough about the broader political implications. If unsafe Mexican trucks were allowed to roam the United States, every accident involving such a truck would immediately be covered as news. And that would be bad news for Bush.
Just ask George Ryan. The Illinois governor is best known nationally for his moratorium on the death penalty. But he is best known at home for a scandal that took place when he was secretary of State in Illinois. Lower-level employees took bribes in exchange for granting licenses to truckers. Corruption is not exactly unheard of in Illinois, so why has this story bedeviled Ryan for three years and all but wrecked his career? Because nine people have been killed and 50 injured in crashes involving these improperly licensed trucks.
It wouldn’t take charges of corruption for the inevitable truck crashes involving unsafe Mexican trucks to be laid at the door of those who let those trucks in. Unfair, maybe, but that’s politics. So unless he vetoes the bill, President Bush and his party just dodged a big semi headed down the median strip, horn blaring. Ten-four, Dubya. You’re safe.
