Empty corrals at the Santa Teresa international livestock crossing. The prohibition on cattle imports due to the New World screwworm is hitting New Mexico ports hard, according to Border Authority officials. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Manzanares)
Even though about one-third of all cattle the United States imports from Mexico come through New Mexico ports of entry, investments and planning about how to stop an ongoing screwworm outbreak are happening outside of the state.
That’s according to officials with the New Mexico Border Authority, who provided an interim legislative committee Tuesday afternoon with an update on the New World screwworm infestation. Concerns about the outbreak prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July to halt cattle imports from Mexico.
The prohibition on cattle imports meant a halt to a $1.3 billion industry, according to authority officials, and is hitting the Columbus, N.M. port of entry particularly hard. Mexican cattle growers ship approximately 300,000 cattle through Columbus and Santa Teresa ports of entry each year, according to the authority.
Authorities see no immediate end in sight for the outbreak, according to Gerardo Fierro, the authority’s director, and Joseph de la Rosa, the authority’s board’s chair. The onus falls on Mexican animal welfare authorities to slow northward advancement of the infestation, Fierro said, to the USDA’s satisfaction.
The movement of the parasitic fly, previously eradicated from the U.S. for the last several decades, has disrupted international cattle trade through New Mexico, Arizona and Texas in the last several months. The screwworm’s name references the maggot’s behavior of burrowing into the flesh of a living animal, sometimes causing serious or fatal damage to livestock, wildlife and pets.
In late August, the USDA awarded $750 million to a lab in Edinburg, Texas, to produce about 300 million sterile screwworm flies per week. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins stood alongside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a news conference, at which she said that the infestation “endangers our livestock industry and it threatens the stability of beef prices for consumers across America,” according to the Texas Tribune.
De la Rosa pointed to the new facility being built in Texas as an example of a missed opportunity for New Mexico. He said it’s another example of why the New Mexico Legislature needs to increase its funding for New Mexico border infrastructure.
“New Mexico was not even part of the conversation for that; we have the largest cattle crossing along the US-Mexico border; the cattle industry is important here,” he said. “But because of our lack of infrastructure and our lack of development along the border, we weren’t even, you know, in that conversation.”
The authority, which seeks to spur development at the state’s four international ports of entry, currently has a flat operating budget of about $577,000, de la Rosa said, though he and Fierro listed some multi-million-dollar capital projects they’re hoping the Legislature will fund.
Between 2023 and 2024, the total value of all goods imported or exported across the Columbus and Santa Teresa ports of entry grew from about $28.3 billion to about $40.4 billion, according to Fierro’s presentation. The vast majority of that occurred at Santa Teresa, according to Fierro.
Even with the decrease in cattle imports, which Fierro said he’s still trying to quantify, the ports are still among the fastest-growing in the country and competitive with ports in El Paso.
