US Reopens Cattle Border to Mexico Monday
US Reopens Cattle Border to Mexico Monday
The News
The United States reopens part of the southern border to Mexican livestock on Monday, Aug. 24, ending a yearlong ban imposed over the New World screwworm — a flesh-eating parasite whose larvae burrow into wounds in warm-blooded animals.
Only one crossing opens: Douglas, Arizona, which borders Agua Prieta in the Mexican state of Sonora. If it goes smoothly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could allow imports through additional ports.
The reopening lands in the middle of record beef prices, a U.S. cattle herd at a 75-year low, and a fight inside the American cattle industry over whether foreign livestock should be coming in at all.
How The Reopening Works
Shipments will be capped and phased. In the first week only 700 cattle per day will be allowed through, rising to 900 in the second week and increasing gradually to 1,300 per day, according to Arturo Ruiz, the veterinarian responsible for animal health for the state of Sonora, who described the protocol to The Associated Press.
The rules also require cattle to wear radio-frequency identification tags in their ears and to be screened by electronic readers and trained dogs. USDA officials will conduct inspections before the animals cross into Arizona.
Mexico accepted the U.S. protocols. Some ranchers there are frustrated by them. "We are at a complicated moment when we need authorities to think less politically and more technically and reasonably," said Juan Carlos Ochoa, president of the Regional Livestock Union of Sonora, referring to tensions between the two governments when the ban was first imposed in May 2025.
Timeline
The screwworm outbreak is detected in Mexico. Cattle trade with the U.S. is shuttered on and off from this point.
The ban is imposed, amid tensions between the Mexican and U.S. governments.
The current border closure is put in place.
Sonora reports its first screwworm infestation, in the community of Munihuasa near the Chihuahua and Sinaloa borders. U.S. officials had chosen Sonora in part because it had no screwworm cases; the single case has not slowed USDA's plans, and the agency said Thursday it intends to move ahead.
President Trump announces the U.S. will import 300,000 metric tons of beef to "reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again," a move quickly criticized by cattle industry organizations.
Douglas, Arizona reopens to Sonoran cattle.
Reactions
Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF, a national association of independent cattle and sheep farmers, is one of the loudest voices against reopening. "In just over a generation's time, we wiped out half (of) our cattle producers in this country," he told CNN. "It's because we have been growing our dependence on foreign sources, displacing our domestic production in the United States. It is a threat to national security."
Colorado rancher Johnny Mestas, 74, is uneasy too — and blunt about why high prices have been good to him. "These past few years, I actually made money!" he told CNN. "Years and years, it was basically always break-even."
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in an op-ed the USDA sent CNN in response to questions about the decision, wrote: "If at any point we determine there is an imminent threat to our domestic herd, we will not hesitate to immediately pause the reopenings. Protecting American livestock will always come first."
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which represents ranchers and feeders including many who rely on Mexican livestock, said in a statement posted online that the reopening will "help normalize business for cattle operations throughout the border states and Southern Plains."
Jenna Stanton, policy director at the U.S. Cattlemen's Association, told CNN many ranchers see the administration's push as an attempt to ease market pressure and lower beef costs before November: "There's a midterm to be won this fall that, frankly, they are losing. They are looking to pull any lever they can."
On the Mexican side, Alvaro Bustillos, head of the ranchers' union in Chihuahua, said the closure gutted his business. "I had to fire people," he told CNN. "It took me years to build my team. It took me years to build relationships."
What's Next
Watch three things. Whether USDA expands beyond Douglas to additional ports — that depends on how the first weeks go. Whether the daily caps actually climb from 700 head to 1,300. And whether another screwworm case in Sonora triggers the pause Rollins has promised.
Sonora rancher Martín Alfonso Ibarra, 58, whose income fell 40% last year because of the halt, has 16 calves he hopes to send north — but says he won't finalize a sale until October, when they have gained enough weight. "There's no need to get too excited," he said.
More
The scale of what stopped: before the closure, Mexico exported about 1.2 million head of cattle to the U.S. each year, business worth $1.2 billion to Mexico last year. When exports were suspended, Mexican ranchers sold into their domestic market for nearly 40% less than U.S. buyers paid.
The damage did not stay south of the border. Juan Carlos Anaya of the consulting firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas said U.S. ranchers could not make up the shortfall, contributing to meat-processing plant closures and hurting feedlots. Mexico has exported 22% more boxed beef to the U.S. this year, according to USDA data. Last week Tyson Foods announced it is closing plants in Illinois and Utah and seeking to sell a facility in Washington, citing "one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced."
Derrell Peel, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University, argues the screwworm is not the main driver of high prices — years of severe drought shrank the herd. "We would have had record cattle prices (in the US) with or without the border closed," he said.
Mexico currently has 1,969 active screwworm cases, less than half the number reported a year ago, a decline authorities say shows progress. The outbreak has reached 30 of Mexico's 32 states, and the parasite has already crossed into the U.S., with cases being fought in Texas and New Mexico.
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