After Federal Change, Border Cattle Industry Struggles

OJINAGA, MEXICO — This remote town on the Texas-Mexico border used to enjoy the distinction of being one of the busiest ports for importing Mexican cattle into the U.S. But citing concerns about escalating drug violence in Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture last year moved its cattle inspectors across the Rio Grande into Texas — a decision residents on both sides of the border say has crippled the local livestock industry. Before the change, cattle were inspected and weighed — and sales finalized — on the Mexican side of the border at a multi-acre facility that could hold 15,000 animals. Ranchers from at least nine of Mexico’s 31 states would send their cattle for inspection and subsequent import, said Mexican customs agent Severo Santiago Baeza. Jimmy McNeil, a cattle importer who has been buying in Ojinaga for 30 years, said the Mexican ranchers can’t be blamed for moving their product to the New Mexico border instead. “They have a legitimate gripe.” The towns have enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, and El Paso state Sen. José Rodríguez, a Democrat whose district now includes part of the Big Bend area. They reached out, they say, because for a year they couldn’t get a clear answer on who made the ultimate decision: the U.S. State Department or the USDA...more

Obama, Udall and Heinrich tell us the border is safe.  So safe we should designate Wilderness along our border even though law enforcement would have no, or very limited, access to these areas.

They tell us that while at the same time USDA is pulling their employees who work just across the border back into the U.S.  Either OUH or USDA is wrong about the border.  Whom do you think has it right:  the folks who work along the border or the politicians in DC?