Past violations draw new scrutiny
U.S. authorities are looking beyond drivers' current assignments when reviewing possible cabotage violations, Miller told FreightWaves on Tuesday at the second annual WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida. Knight-Swift, whose Mexican operations run through its TransMex subsidiary, has seen drivers lose visas over alleged violations while employed by other carriers.
"I've seen them take visas away from drivers from really a previous carrier, not even cabotage with our trucks, with our company," Miller said.
Cabotage is a foreign carrier's movement of domestic freight between two locations in another country. U.S. law restricts that activity. Miller said Knight-Swift follows strict cross-border compliance policies, but he warned that heightened scrutiny could deter some Mexican drivers from entering the United States.
"I do feel like that type of capacity is going to get a little bit tighter as enforcement ramps up," he said.
Transport Topics reported that enforcement intensified in 2026 after the Department of Transportation gave border authorities three years of cabotage violation records. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers can use those records to identify past offenders electronically before they enter the country. The change has produced more visa revocations by allowing officers to uncover violations without physically inspecting trucks.
Visa losses, driver shortages and a border blockade
Augusto Ramos Melo, president of Mexico's National Chamber of Freight Transportation, known as Canacar, said approximately 20,000 Mexican truck drivers had their U.S. work visas revoked from April 2025 through April 2026. He attributed the figure to the American Trucking Associations and linked the revocations to an executive order President Donald Trump issued in April 2025.
Ramos said about 30,000 foreign truck drivers were removed from U.S. operations over that period; Mexican drivers represented roughly two-thirds of them. Canacar estimates that Mexico already lacks approximately 96,000 truck drivers. Nearly 30% of active drivers are older than 55, while about 13% are younger than 25, according to Ramos.
A concentrated round of revocations disrupted freight traffic in September. According to border-area reporting cited by Transport Topics, 17 Mexican truckers permanently lost their visas on Sept. 3, 2026, at Mexicali, opposite the Calexico East commercial cargo crossing. Drivers responded with a four-day blockade that stopped commercial vehicles from entering at the port.
CBP described the disruption as confined to Calexico East and said it ended over the weekend. The agency extended hours at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry to help clear cargo backlogs.
Cabotage enforcement has also drawn attention in Washington. A Sept. 11, 2026, Congressional Research Service report identified it as a potential federal policy issue. HR 8870, the bipartisan BUILD America 250 Act proposal to reauthorize surface transportation programs for fiscal years 2027-31, would direct the transportation secretary to provide a Transportation Research Board report within one year on the safety and economic effects of cabotage violations.
Nearshoring outlook tempered by tariff uncertainty
Miller remains optimistic about the longer-term prospects for U.S.-Mexico freight, citing opportunities from nearshoring. "I think long term I think Mexico is going to play a bigger role," he said.
Trade policy remains a qualification to that outlook. Miller said uncertainty about tariffs could influence freight volumes and investment decisions. "Tariffs are a big unknown," he said.
Knight-Swift moves substantial automotive freight across the border, and some customers have already revised their transportation strategies in response to tariff developments, Miller said.
Nuevo León lowers one toll and proposes more bridge capacity
Nuevo León is cutting an additional state toll for commercial trucks approaching the Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge by 50%. The reduction leaves the city of Laredo, Texas, tolls unchanged.
The state charge is collected on the Mexican side about 500 meters before the existing bridge tollbooth. It was introduced on April 14, 2025, during Gov. Samuel García's administration. By lowering the charge, Nuevo León aims to reduce shipping costs, support exports to the United States and attract more freight traffic to the crossing.
The bridge links Nuevo León with the Laredo area, offering truckers another route between Mexico and the United States. García reported in February 2026 that daily truck crossings there had climbed from approximately 300 in 2021 to 7,000 in 2026. The state's goal is about 15,000 a day by 2030.
On Aug. 28, 2026, García announced a proposed $200 million expansion of the Colombia-Laredo International Bridge. The plan calls for two additional bridges, one handling exports and the other imports, increasing the crossing from eight lanes to 16.
Construction is targeted to begin in May 2027. Under the proposal, Texas and Nuevo León would each contribute $100 million.
Walmart plans automated distribution facility in Cibolo
Walmart's proposed $400 million distribution center in Cibolo, northeast of San Antonio, would bring at least 425 full-time jobs with pay above the San Antonio metropolitan area's median salary, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing identifies the development as "Project Theo." Plans place a 712,500-square-foot warehouse and an adjoining 31,933-square-foot office building on roughly 126 acres at 3641 S. Santa Clara Road. Work is scheduled to start in February 2027 and finish in August 2029.
The property formerly housed the San Antonio Raceway. Walmart has no regional distribution center in the San Antonio area; its stores along the Interstate 35 corridor receive service from a center in New Braunfels. The Cibolo project would extend the retailer's distribution presence along Interstates 35 and 10, which connect San Antonio, Austin and other Texas markets.
City officials say the planned operation would combine robotics and advanced warehouse equipment with employees managing automated systems. Separately, Walmart's 2021 agreement with Symbotic calls for automated storage and retrieval systems at its 42 regional distribution centers by 2034.
Cibolo approved approximately $32.5 million in incentives in October 2025, before Walmart was publicly identified as the company behind the project. The package provides a 75% property tax abatement over 10 years and a five-year, 50% rebate of the city's maintenance and operations property tax. It also includes a performance-based sales tax rebate and a tax increment reinvestment zone.
The Cibolo Economic Development Corp. added an infrastructure reimbursement of $300,000 payable in the first year, a $453,000 ceiling on project permit fees and $6,000 for workforce development.
