Trump could use a history lesson on NAFTA

This was all to please the Teamsters. You see, union truck drivers don't want to compete with Mexican drivers for lucrative long-haul contracts in the United States, even if the jobs originate in Mexico. And they have the political muscle to make themselves a monopoly.

So, for years, U.S. drivers benefited from this crazy system where Mexican trucks were barred from going beyond 25 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican truckers would have to pull over and transfer their cargo onto U.S. trucks, which would then complete the journey to cities like Milwaukee, Seattle or St. Louis.

That's not fair, and it's harmful for commerce. How do unions defend something like that? Technically they don't have to. That's why they line the pockets of Democratic politicians, who then make the argument for them on the House floor or Senate chamber.

And that's where things got ugly. In the immigration debate, it's usually Republicans who flirt with racism and demagoguery to serve their narrow political interests. But in the debate over NAFTA, and the Mexican trucks, it was Democrats who played that game as they shamelessly attempted to camouflage their errand for the unions as a public-safety issue.

All through the 1990s, Americans were told how rickety and unsafe these Mexican trucks were, and how Mexican drivers were likely hauling drugs or were themselves operating under the influence of drugs. The idea was to scare Americans into maintaining the 25-mile prohibition -- despite the fact that people living in U.S. border communities such as Brownsville, Texas, or San Diego shared their highways with Mexican trucks every day and never had much trouble.

President Obama finally lifted the ban and granted the Mexican truckers permanent access to U.S. roadways, but that didn't happen until January 2015. That was more than 20 years after NAFTA went into effect. By then, Obama was closing out his second term and no longer had to worry about carrying water for the Teamsters and labor unions.

Now there's a fear that Trump will use the NAFTA renegotiation to scrap that order, and take us back to the dark days of the Clinton administration. If Trump succeeds in running Mexican trucks off U.S. roadways, how strange would that be? A Republican president adopting the pro-union protectionist policies of a Democratic predecessor.

It makes you wonder. Democrats are implying that Trump works for Russia. We should be asking if he really works for them.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.