Political Quotes

“President Bush's decision to open the border to Mexican trucks is wrong. A report released on May 8th from the Department of Transportation's inspector general showed the U.S. Border Patrol can only inspect 1 percent, 46,000 of the 4.5 million trucks that were crossing the border. Three years ago, at my expense, I went to Laredo, Nuevo Laredo. I went to the border and watched the truck inspections. One person was inspecting trucks that day. Two thousand five hundred trucks were going through the border at Laredo; one inspector working for Governor George W. Bush and the Department of Public Safety in Texas. I asked him how many trucks he inspected a day. He said 10 to 12. I said, how many trucks do you take out of service each day? He said, somewhere between about 9 to 11. He had told us, complained that the State of Texas had not fixed the scales which had been broken for 3 months, that the State of Texas and the Government of the United States simply were not very interested in truck safety. Whether these trucks, these 2,500 a day that were going from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo, Texas, the 4.5 million trucks a year, whether they have faulty brakes or tire failures or loads that exceed weight limits, Mexican trucks fail to meet American standards. Mexican trucks on average are 10 years older than U.S. trucks. A truck driver in the United States cannot get a license until 21. In Mexico, the age is 18.”