Mexican truck drivers protesting U.S. enforcement of B-1 visa restrictions began blocking access Thursday to the commercial crossing between Mexicali, Baja California, and Calexico, California.
The demonstration is taking place on the Mexican side of the Calexico East-Mexicali Port of Entry, where drivers are demanding clearer answers from U.S. authorities about visa revocations and the enforcement of cabotage rules.
The dispute has an immediate consequence for trucking: freight is getting caught in the middle.
The Calexico East crossing normally handles an estimated 1,255 commercial trucks per day and approximately $2 billion in cross-border trade annually, including automotive, industrial, medical and agricultural products.
Why Mexican drivers are protesting
Mexican commercial drivers operating under B-1 visas are permitted to transport international freight between Mexico and the United States.
What they generally cannot do is cabotage — transporting domestic freight between two points inside the United States.
Drivers participating in the protest say U.S. authorities have been revoking visas following inspections and questioning about their activities while operating in the U.S. They are asking federal authorities to provide clearer and more consistent guidance about what constitutes prohibited cabotage and what conduct can result in the loss of a B-1 visa.
Reports from Mexico have alleged that 17 drivers in Mexicali lost their visas this week, although FreightWaves said it had not independently verified that figure and accounts differed about when the revocations occurred.
Ismael Reyes de la Rosa, CANACAR’s representative in Mexicali, said he personally knew of 11 drivers who had lost their visas and called for those cases to be examined individually.
That distinction matters. There is clearly a dispute over enforcement, but the exact number of visas revoked — and the circumstances behind each revocation — remain unsettled.
Trucking groups warned a disruption was coming
The protest wasn’t completely unexpected.
Mexico’s National Chamber of Freight Transportation, known as CANACAR, warned Wednesday that drivers in Mexicali and the surrounding region were planning demonstrations and potentially closing commercial crossings at Mexicali and San Luis Río Colorado beginning Thursday morning.
The organization advised trucking companies to prepare for possible disruptions to border access and freight operations.
The demonstration itself, however, appears to be driver-led rather than formally organized by CANACAR.
That’s important because it creates uncertainty over how long the protests could continue and whether an agreement between industry organizations and government officials would be enough to end them.
The bigger issue is freight capacity
This story comes at a particularly sensitive time for U.S.-Mexico trucking.
The dispute over B-1 visas has already raised concerns about the availability of Mexican drivers capable of moving cross-border freight. Previous industry reporting has warned that tougher B-1 conditions combined with strong northbound freight demand could further tighten capacity between Mexico and the United States.
Now there is a second problem.
Even trucks and drivers that remain fully eligible to cross the border can’t move freight efficiently if access to the commercial gateway itself is blocked.
That means the enforcement debate can potentially affect the freight market in two different ways:
Fewer available drivers — and slower movement of the drivers who remain.
For shippers, brokers and carriers operating cross-border lanes, prolonged disruptions can mean missed appointments, equipment sitting instead of moving, longer turns and increased pressure on available capacity.
And Calexico may not be the end of it.
Reports Thursday indicated that truckers were also protesting at the commercial crossing in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, while some drivers warned demonstrations could expand to other crossings, including Tijuana, if their concerns aren’t addressed.
From enforcement story to freight story
For months, the trucking industry has been watching federal enforcement increasingly focus on driver eligibility, licensing, English proficiency, immigration status and the integrity of commercial-driver credentials.
The Calexico protest represents something different.
The enforcement campaign is now producing a visible operational consequence at an international freight gateway.
Loads don’t care about the politics surrounding B-1 visas. A shipment either crosses the border or it doesn’t.
If demonstrations remain isolated and short-lived, the impact may be limited. But if protests continue or spread to larger commercial gateways, what began as a fight over driver eligibility could quickly become a much broader capacity, service and freight-cost problem.
For American carriers and brokers moving freight out of Mexico, that’s the part of this story worth watching.
The question is no longer simply how many drivers could be affected by tighter enforcement. It’s what happens to cross-border freight when those drivers decide to stop the trucks themselves.