An open letter to my U.S. congressmen

(U.S. Sen. John McCain, U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, and Rep. Jim Kolbe, District 5)
Heidi Livingston, Wilcox, AZ

I’m writing in light of the recent announcement that our borders and highways will be wide open to Mexican-domiciled trucks, due to NAFTA. This is a serious safety hazard to our national motoring public. There has been no implementation of any safety inspection plans for the Mexican-domiciled trucks and drivers. It is a known fact that their equipment and drivers are well below our safety standards. The incidence of drug and people smuggling would increase. Is it fair to subject our citizens to this?

Trucking in the United States has come a long way in improving safety on our highways. However, there’s still a way to go. Introducing substandard, dangerous equipment to our roadways; driven by drivers who are unfamiliar with federal and state driving laws, unfamiliar with our language, inexperienced in winter (ice/snow) driving...it is unconscionable of our government to do this to us.
In addition to endangering everyone that drives, allowing Mexican-domiciled trucks through to the freight’s destination will cause American drivers to lose jobs. So, the manufacturer and the wholesaler make out on this deal, while American drivers starve. It’s hard enough for a professional driver to earn a decent living with the price of fuel constantly rising. Now, we must compete with substandard companies and their unsafe, unqualified, inferior-waged employees: sanctioned on us by our own government!

I understand Mexico is our neighbor and we need to be friends. However, why are we Americans always the bad guys? I live in Cochise County, the hot spot of drug and people smuggling. What is Mexico doing to help stop this? Slander and accusations against our citizens for protecting their constitutional rights as American citizens. Please help block these trucks from coming in. At the very least, every truck and driver that crosses the southern border into our country must be thoroughly inspected.