Mexico-US visa dispute threatens truck capacity

CANACAR is calling for clearer US-Mexico procedures governing B-1 visas for cross-border truck drivers after protests at the Mexicali-Calexico East commercial crossing brought a long-running enforcement dispute directly into freight operations.

Drivers began blocking access to the commercial crossing on the Mexican side on 3 September following reports that B-1 visas had been revoked over alleged cabotage violations. Mexican media reported 17 affected drivers in Mexicali, although the precise number has not been independently confirmed.

The protest spread the following day to another crossing at San Luis Río Colorado as drivers demanded clearer rules on how their visas could be used. CANACAR has urged negotiation rather than wider blockades and is pressing Mexican and US authorities for a consistent enforcement protocol.

The disagreement centres on the line between legitimate international freight activity and domestic US transport work. B-1 status permits defined temporary business activity but is not a general employment visa, and commercial drivers can face immigration consequences if officials conclude that their movements amount to unauthorised domestic work.

Cabotage rules are therefore not new, but Mexican carriers argue that operational interpretation has become too uncertain. Disputes have included the movement of empty trailers and other activity that carriers regard as part of a wider international freight sequence but which may be examined differently by enforcement officers.

CANACAR has asked drivers who have lost visas to document their cases so that the organisation can establish what occurred. Its representatives are also seeking official information from US authorities rather than relying on member reports and social-media accounts.

That distinction is important because some of the larger figures circulating in the dispute are industry estimates, not government statistics. CANACAR representatives have estimated that more than 25,000 commercial-driver visas may have been affected along Mexico’s northern border, including around 4,000 in the Tijuana region, but the organisation has acknowledged that those figures are based on member information and other unofficial reporting.

The operational risk exists even without a confirmed national total. A driver who loses the ability to cross into the United States has to be replaced by somebody with the correct documentation, route knowledge, customs familiarity, security credentials, and customer procedures, reducing effective capacity before the physical number of trucks changes.

That matters particularly in the Baja California manufacturing corridor, where factories on both sides of the border depend on regular movement of components, subassemblies, equipment, and finished products. Some production networks cross the border repeatedly as goods move through different stages of manufacturing.

Industry groups in the Tijuana area have reported delays to inbound supplies and finished-goods deliveries as transport providers respond to the uncertainty. Outsourced transport users can be particularly exposed because they depend on their carrier’s pool of eligible drivers rather than controlling that resource directly.

The scale of US-Mexico truck trade leaves little room for prolonged capacity disruption. Bureau of Transportation Statistics data shows total freight between the two countries reached $89.2 billion in June 2026, 22.2% above the same month a year earlier.

Trucks moved $68.5 billion of that bilateral freight, far exceeding the value carried by rail, vessel, air, or pipeline. Laredo, El Paso, and Otay Mesa were the leading US truck gateways for Mexican trade, placing the visa dispute inside a network whose daily reliability supports a substantial share of North American manufacturing.

Otay Mesa is especially relevant to the Tijuana industrial base, while Mexicali-Calexico East serves another major Baja California production corridor. Freight moving through these gateways includes automotive components, electronics, medical equipment, food products, machinery, and other time-sensitive industrial cargo.

The cost of a driver shortage is therefore likely to appear first through waiting time and operating inefficiency rather than a complete absence of trucks. Carriers may have to reshuffle assignments, reposition equipment, change relay arrangements, or hold a load until a suitably documented driver is available.

For factories working with limited inventory buffers, those delays can become production problems before they become visible in aggregate trade statistics. A component arriving several hours late may be commercially significant even while the monthly value of bilateral trade remains high.

US State Department guidance makes clear that B-1 status covers specified business activity and does not authorise general skilled or unskilled employment. The industry’s request is consequently not for domestic cabotage to be permitted, but for the boundary around lawful international trucking activity to be applied predictably enough for dispatchers and drivers to plan movements before they reach the border.

Predictability also supports enforcement. Carriers can change empty-trailer movements, relay points, dispatch instructions, or documentation when the operating rule is clear. Inconsistent interpretation is harder to manage because a movement accepted in one circumstance may be perceived by drivers as presenting a different visa risk elsewhere.

CANACAR is seeking discussions involving Mexican ministries and US authorities rather than another round of border closures. Whether those talks produce a clearer procedure will determine if the B-1 dispute remains a series of individual enforcement cases or begins to reduce the driver capacity available to one of North America’s most valuable industrial freight corridors.