A federal appeals court rejected a bid by the Teamsters union and others for an emergency stay of the Bush administration's plan to open the Mexican border for limited long-distance trucking.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
in San Francisco denied the request by the Teamsters, Public Citizen and the Sierra Club, among others. The court said the petitioners did not meet the legal requirements for a stay.
The plan by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would permit a limited number of Mexican carriers to conduct cross-border business for a year. It has been the subject of intense congressional and legal dispute since the agency first went public with it a year ago.
FMCSA has indicated that it may be ready to start after this Thursday. More legal action is possible, however - the court said in its brief statement that its briefing schedule on the matter will remain in effect.
Last week the agency was waiting for the Department of Transportation's Inspector General to complete an audit of the agency's safety program for the border crossing, and DOT must respond to the audit before it can start the program.
The agency said it expects that 44 Mexican trucks would participate in the first month of the program, and that no more than 100 Mexican carriers will be permitted to join during the course of the program.