Rollins: Limited Border Reopening Strategy Plans Shaping Up

April 2, 2026

At a recent Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers meeting, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said conversations are intensifying about a limited border reopening strategy to allow Mexican cattle into the U.S following a lengthy closure to protect against New World Screwworm.

She said she expects to make an announcement in the next month about a phased approach to opening the Mexican border, likely beginning with the port in Douglas, Arizona, which is 800 miles from the closest detection.

“The realistic answer to that is that why we have against all odds - I mean every model showed the New World Screwworm being in Texas last summer - so against all odds we've been able to keep it, with a few exceptions, right around 200 miles south of the Texas border,” Rollins said.

“There are four ports - two in Texas on the Mexican border, one in New Mexico, and one in Arizona," she said. "The closest the screwworm has gotten to the Arizona border is about 800 miles, so we're currently evaluating a potential phased-in strategy. We obviously will not be opening all four ports anytime soon, but there is a realistic conversation that's currently happening. ”

Rollins credited the border closure with strengthening accountability and cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico. “I think they would have been good partners… whether we closed the ports or not,” she said. “But I know for sure they have been much better partners because those ports have been closed.”

She said the U.S. has also stepped in with direct support to bolster the response and said it was clear that "to protect Texas, we were going to have to use our own resources in Mexico.”

Part of those resources were invested in a new sterile fly facility expected to break ground in south Texas in mid-April. The investment is significant, she said, especially in the current political climate.

“This groundbreaking is pretty unprecedented at a time when our administration… is working to cut costs, cut taxes, shrink government,” she said. “We’re investing a billion dollars in that particular effort in South Texas.”

The goal is to eliminate reliance on foreign infrastructure, she said, so the U.S. is “no longer or ever again reliant on a facility in Panama that clearly isn’t producing nearly enough flies.”

Rollins said she has made multiple trips to the border and wants ranchers to know they continue to work to protect producers against the New World Screwworm with an eye on containment and readiness.

 “Our goal… we feel fairly confident, at least to this point, we’ve been able to contain, keeping it out of America, keeping it out of Texas.” “But if it ends up in Texas, we’re ready for that as well.”

Source: Rachel Gabel, Western Ag Network

Photo courtesy of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers