Groups file last minute injunction to keep Mexican trucks off US soil

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — With Mexican trucks ready to hit US roads under a controversial pilot project as early as Saturday, several organizations have launched a last ditch attempt to derail the project through an emergency injunction.

The Teamsters have teamed up with other special interest groups such as the Sierra Club and Public Citizen to launch the injunction. The Owner-Operators Independent Drivers Association also announced it would be launching an injunction against the project.

What a slap in the face to American workers – opening the highways to dangerous trucks on Labor Day weekend, one of the busiest driving weekends of the year, Teamsters general president Jim Hoffa said in a release.

The groups are hopeful their injunction will be successful, because they contend implementation of the pilot project, which would allow up to 100 Mexican carriers to send trucks into the US, is unlawful. They say laws require the Department of Transportation to: create a program that yields statistically valid findings; show that US trucks have the same right to travel in Mexico that Mexican-domiciled trucks have to operate in the US; and reveal the inspection results for motor carriers allowed to operate beyond the border zone.

In their rush to open the border, FMCSA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are commencing a pilot program that does not comply with the congressional requirements that are statutory prerequisites for the program to begin, Teamsters insisted.

Congress has repeatedly and overwhelmingly set stringent safety conditions for the cross-border trucking program to meet before our borders are thrown open, Hoffa added. The Transportation Department inspector generals report released Aug. 21 made it clear that those conditions have not been met. The Bush administrations reckless endangerment of the American people is matched only by its brazen disregard for the law of the land.

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