The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is sounding the alarm bell about the potential for Mexican railroad crews to smuggle people and contraband into the United States.
The warning comes as the union opposes Union Pacific’s efforts to use Ferromex crews to deliver northbound interchange trains to its yard in Eagle Pass, Texas, some 7 miles from the border, and handle UP southbound trains across the border into Mexico.
The crew change point is currently on the International Railway Bridge over the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, the No. 2 rail gateway between the U.S. and Mexico.
The BLET, in a post on its website this week, claimed that using Mexican crews for cross-border operations poses a threat to U.S. border security.
The union cited two instances this year where Ferromex crewmen were arrested for attempting to smuggle people, drugs, and contraband into the U.S. this year. In one case, Mexican authorities arrested the crew member before the train reached the U.S. In the other case, U.S. Customs & Border Protection officials arrested a Ferromex crew member on the Texas side of the border.
“Union Pacific, which holds a large stake in Ferromex, is seeking permission from the federal government to allow Mexican train crews to take freight trains as far as 20.5 miles into the United States near Eagle Pass and at another location near El Paso. Pilot runs have already been allowed,” the union said.
UP says the union’s 20.5-mile claim is false, noting that the proposed crew-change point in Eagle Pass is 7 miles from the border. The railroad has no plans yet in place for the El Paso gateway.
“BLET is adamantly opposed to the granting of these waivers. The union sees these proposals as a threat to American jobs, border security, and the safety of the communities near the border,” the union said.
A UP spokeswoman says the number of incidents involving people attempting to cross the border illegally or smuggle goods into the country via the railroad is down year over year.
UP says no American jobs would be lost as a result of the shift of the crew change point from the bridge to Clarks Park Yard in Eagle Pass.
The railroad also says moving the crew change off the bridge increases border security because trains would no longer have to stop on the span, with most of the northbound train stretched out into Piedras Negras, Mexico, for around 30 minutes.
UP and trackage rights tenant BNSF Railway both work with Ferromex on security matters, the UP spokeswoman said.
Customs and Border Protection requested the new Eagle Pass crew-change process as part of the federal government’s Secure Corridor Initiative, UP has said.
The streamlined process would align Eagle Pass with other U.S. crossings where this is already common practice, including along the northern border with Canada and southern border in Laredo, Texas, the top U.S.-Mexico rail gateway.
For decades Canadian train crews have operated trains across the border and into the U.S. for crew changes.
It’s not possible to secure a border. There has to be internal enforcement of visas or passports, because a border can never be leakproof. How any Mexican illegals live in USA as we speak? Maybe close to ten million. Which is way more people than the entire roster of professional Mexican railroaders.
Airplanes don’t change crews in the middle of an ocean or crossing an international border. That includes airline crews from Mexico, who fly into my local airport (MKE General Mitchell) each day.
We do trade with Mexico and our freight trains and theirs cross the border. We need to treat railroad crews with the same professional respect as airline crews. There is no reason why a freight train crew from Mexico shouldn’t come into a crew change point in Texas.
Mexico is not an enemy country. I’m against illegal immigration but that doesn’t include Mexicans who cross the border driving a freight train. A train crew isn’t criminals, no more than an airline crew.