Trump Administration Faces Pressure To Open The Border — To Mexican Cattle

The Trump administration's strategy for warding off a flesh-eating pest threatening the American beef industry is rapidly losing allies.

Closing the southern border to Mexican livestock imports last year became a pillar of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ effort to slow the northward advance of the New World screwworm while the Trump administration weathered criticism over high beef prices.

The move won Rollins praise at the time, but now that the Agriculture Department has confirmed 35 cases in Texas and New Mexico, ranchers and beef producers are pushing her to open up.

Rollins, a Texan, has cast herself as a defender of ranchers' interests as the industry struggles with drought and economic factors that have shrunk the U.S. herd size to a 75-year low.

But now those Trump-friendly business leaders are pulling back, and she’s found herself at odds with other Trump administration officials, especially those seeking to boost beef imports. The pressure is creating another headache for President Donald Trump as his administration struggles to lower prices for consumers ahead of midterm elections likely to focus on affordability.

“The decisions being made in D.C. are not in the best interest of the people,” said Trent Loos, a Nebraska rancher and radio host who advised Trump officials on agriculture issues during the president’s first-term transition. “They have lost touch with what the people need. The people need an adequate supply of reasonably priced food, and this USDA is not doing it.”

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.”

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 the president’s inauguration in 2025 but closed it again in May as the pest moved northward in Mexico.

Rollins has struggled to convince lawmakers and other critics in Texas that USDA is doing everything it can to stop the pest’s advance. She has blamed the Biden administration and argued that her efforts delayed the pest’s arrival by a year. However, last year’s DOGE-led policies shrank staffing at USDA’s top animal health agency, and Trump administration spending reviews further delayed key facilities that would help contain the screwworm.

“I don't envy Secretary Rollins here, because I think she is under pressure from every different perspective,” said Ethan Lane, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Rollins has not indicated how soon the border could reopen, though she’s told reporters that the department is constantly reassessing the closure.

“Secretary Rollins closed the ports last year not only to keep the [screwworm] out for as long as possible, but also to leverage the opportunity for an unprecedented partnership with Mexico and all other key American government and private sector partners,” USDA spokesperson Michael Abboud said in a statement to POLITICO.

Abboud added that Rollins is “very pleased with the progress to date” on screwworm prevention and credited the border closure with helping stave off the pest, which Rollins has said was otherwise expected to arrive in the U.S. by summer of 2025.

“If New World screwworm had actually hit America last summer, beef prices would be much, much higher than they are today, because the infestation would have resembled the 1960s,” Abboud said. “Instead, thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are in a completely different position.”

At the same time, Rollins has resisted recommendations by some USDA officials to reopen the border, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations.

“She kept saying ‘No, no, no, no,’” said one of the two people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes wrangling. “[She has] really nothing to back it up, and it's just her not wanting the political football of having screwworm be on her watch, which then it happened anyway.”

One White House official, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the tensions, said Rollins 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.”

Kevin Shea, former administrator of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said that keeping the border closed could work against efforts to fight the spread of screwworm. Commercial cattle are closely inspected by state and federal officials for the pest and other animal diseases, but the absence of an authorized pathway increases the economic incentive to smuggle cattle that are more likely to carry the pest undetected.

“If you’re looking for zero risk, or concerned about appearance, I can understand why the decision would be made [to close the border],” Shea said. “But from a pure science standpoint, there could be restrictions put in place for [safe movement].”

Before the border’s closure, U.S. importers typically brought in young cattle from Mexico and sent them to feedlots across the Southwest where they were fattened for slaughter. The halting of those imports has tightened the domestic beef supply by reducing the number of cattle available for processing.

“Those feedlots are pretty empty,” Lane said. “Even though reopening the border would not return that same volume of cattle that have been there previously, it would sort of normalize that and probably have a bit of a psychological benefit as well in the markets.”

It’s also put Republicans on Capitol Hill on edge.

House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) has raised concerns that the closed border is prompting Mexico to boost its industry in ways that could hurt U.S. ranchers and beef producers.

“It’s important that we have frank conversations about returning to a sense of normalcy at the border,” Thompson told Rollins during a hearing last month. “They’re benefiting from U.S. genetics and taking inventory away from domestic producers.”

Beef producers have already cringed at the White House’s suggestions of increasing beef imports to bring consumer costs down. Greater competition from Mexican producers will only add to the stress.

“We could open it tomorrow, and most of the Mexican beef supply is gonna laugh at us and say, ‘We're selling you beef now. Why would we want to sell you the cattle?’” Loos said.

Industry leaders have emphasized that reopening the border will need to be accompanied by checkpoints and quarantine measures to prevent further screwworm spread. But they also note that wild animals and pets can transmit the disease regardless of whether livestock movement is held up.

“We have the screwworm anyway,” Loos said.

Marcia Brown contributed to this report.