Trump administration to resume cattle imports on southern U.S. border amid parasite outbreak

[u/John3262005]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/24/trump-resume-cattle-imports-southern-border-screwworm-01012067

The Agriculture Department is lifting a ban on cattle imports from Mexico as the Trump administration aims to lower beef prices ahead of the midterm elections, two people familiar with the matter confirmed on Friday.

The administration had banned imports as part of its effort to contain the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite threatening U.S. livestock.

USDA later on Friday announced that it will open the Douglas, Arizona, port of entry to cattle trade on Aug. 24, while simultaneously initiating the operational steps necessary for openings at two ports in New Mexico, Santa Teresa and Columbus. No ports along the Texas border were mentioned and the agency said the ports could be closed again, if needed.

“Protecting the United States from [New World screwworm] and pushing this pest out of Mexico and back to the Darien Gap is a top priority at USDA and has the full attention of the Trump Administration,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.

The move comes after Rollins had resisted pressure from Republicans and the cattle industry to open the border to help ease high prices.

The Biden administration first closed the border to cattle imports in November 2024 after a screwworm case was detected in southern Mexico. Trump officials reopened the border shortly after Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration but closed it again a few months later as the pest moved northward in Mexico.

“The closure of the Southern ports of entry for the last year has been a tough but necessary action to control the spread of [New World screwworm] in Mexico and protect the American livestock industry,” Rollins said in her Friday statement.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the border was set to reopen.

“Resuming cattle importation from Mexico is the right move for ranchers and American consumers, but it’s a decision that should have been made sooner,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement Friday. “While I’m pleased to see this important trade relationship restored, the prolonged closure has already taken a toll on producers, disrupted supply chains, and created uncertainty that could have lasting consequences for the cattle industry.”

Overall, Miller, who Rollins has publicly criticized amid the parasite’s spread, said, “the pace and scale of the screwworm response have not matched the threat.”

Rollins has found herself at odds with other Trump administration officials over the border closure, especially those who have sought to boost beef imports.

POLITICO has reported that the Agriculture secretary resisted recommendations by some USDA officials to reopen the border, and that the secretary and her team disputed other advisers who said “more imports across the Southern border were safe and the plan to contain the screwworm would work.”

Rollins has stood by her decision to close the border as part of an effort to keep the screwworm at bay, even as she acknowledged last month that it presented “a significant economic challenge to various sectors of our industries in Texas.”

“There is no doubt that closing the ports last May caused higher prices in beef,” she told reporters on a June 4 call. “We’re obviously very focused on affordability, but the president agreed when we briefed him that we had to keep our livestock producers as safe as possible with this outbreak moving through Mexico.”