Like inflation? Get ready for more of it, thanks to Abbott’s attempt to look tough on border

We thought Gov. Greg Abbott, with his Republican primary victory complete, would be done imitating challenger Don Huffines.

Instead, Abbott found one more bad idea to take from Huffines’ failed campaign: crippling trade with Mexico in the name of being tough on illegal immigration and border security.

The governor’s order to have the Department of Public Safety inspect trucks coming in from Mexico immediately slowed business with Texas’ biggest trading partner. Drivers immediately complained of hours added to their cross-border trips. Some launched protest blockades at the Pharr international bridge and other areas, and producers were already feeling the pinch Wednesday. The governor relented a little, reaching a deal with some of his Mexican counterparts for trucks coming into Laredo to move quicker, thanks to checkpoints on the Mexican side. But the slowdowns in the rest of the state appear likely to continue.

All this comes as inflation threatens to crush American families’ budgets and drive the economy into recession. Abbott, creating another layer of bureaucracy that will accomplish little to make Americans safer, added fuel to price hikes at precisely the wrong time.

His attention-grabbing declaration that Texas would pay to take illegal immigrants released into the country to Washington was bad enough. But the trucking disruption, which slipped under the radar at first, threatens to harm countless American businesses and consumers.

The governor is not the only problem here. Truckers, while justifiably frustrated, have no business shutting down entry points entirely. They’re only making a bad situation worse. Protest if you must, but find a way to do it that doesn’t disrupt so many lives.

The failures prompting the governor to act, even if in unproductive ways, originate from Congress and the Biden administration. Without sensible immigration policies — and, in particular, a plan to reform asylum law so that those with specious claims can’t simply disappear into the country — border state officials will feel they must do something in the face of federal inaction.

Texas’ action barely moves the needle, though, despite the cost and diversion of resources. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star to use state military resources is running up huge bills, on top of billions lawmakers already pledged toward border security. But state officers just can’t do much to stop illegal immigration, other than issue citations for minor violations such as trespassing.

It’s a federal job, and even when Washington is maddeningly inept, Texas can’t exactly take over.

With Abbott’s trucking order. DPS resources are pulled away from keeping highways and communities safe. Truckers, already squeezed by higher fuel costs, must waste even more while waiting for inspection. And if a refrigerated truck runs out of diesel in line, its food products are compromised. What does the governor think that kind of thing does to prices at the grocery store?

It’s not even clear what good, if any, the program is doing. Federal inspections, while far from perfect, are thorough. Redundant state inspections are unlikely to uncover much human trafficking or drug smuggling.

The pain will ultimately trickle down to the consumer. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, no soft-on-borders liberal, decried Abbott’s action, warning that Texans could quickly see $5 avocados, among other rapid price increases, as produce is slowed and much more is wasted.

We can’t believe we have to tell a Texas governor this, but: Don’t mess with the guacamole.

Mexico is Texas’ biggest trading partner. U.S. trade with Mexico amounts to $660 billion a year, according to federal figures, and about seven of every 10 trucks that enter the U.S. from Mexico comes through Texas.

During the primary campaign for governor, Huffines, the former Dallas state senator, sought repeatedly to show how much tougher a conservative he was. Abbott frequently moved toward his challenger on matters such as COVID policies and transgender issues.

To be fair, he was probably responding more to what Republican base voters wanted than to Huffines himself. Abbott’s been successful his career by not letting anyone get much further to the right. But he won the primary without breaking a sweat.

On the border, Huffines threatened to stop trade with Mexico to force that country’s hand. He reasoned that the Mexican economy would suffer so much, so quickly, that it would finally take steps to prevent illegal immigration.

Huffines never had an answer for how to deal with the price increases, job losses and supply chain disruptions that would cause in Texas. Now, Abbott risks demonstrating just how bad an idea it was.