Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is on a tear. After announcing on Thursday that the USDA will no longer distribute SNAP benefits to illegal aliens, on Saturday Rollins dropped the hammer on the government of Mexico for their lack of cooperation in combating the New World Screwworm (NWS), a deadly parasite that affects cattle. Rollins wrote a letter to her counterpart in Mexico, Ag Secretary Julio Antonio Berdegué Sacristán, outlining the issue at hand and demanding action be taken to correct it, under threat of stopping Mexico's cattle, bison, and equine imports into the United States.

The correspondence reads, in part:

We are now at a critical inflection point in our shared campaign against this pest, and I am very concerned about our collaboration. The outbreak in southern Mexico continues to expand, and every day that passes without full deployment of sterile insect technique (SIT) operations represents a lost opportunity to contain this pest and prevent its spread beyond Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

NEW: Per @USDA official, @SecRollins sent this letter to the Mexican government today, threatening to restrict all animal imports from MX into the U.S. at ports of entry, including cattle & bison, if the MX government doesn’t begin to cooperate fully with the U.S. in its efforts… pic.twitter.com/E6fHpxg2mA

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 26, 2025

NEW: Per @USDA official, @SecRollins sent this letter to the Mexican government today, threatening to restrict all animal imports from MX into the U.S. at ports of entry, including cattle & bison, if the MX government doesn’t begin to cooperate fully with the U.S. in its efforts to stop the spread of the New World screw worm, a flesh eating fly that is spreading north from Central America & southern Mexico. The pest can be devastating to the cattle population.  

Secretary Rollins is giving the MX government until April 30th to make requested changes, or else animal commodity imports from MX into the US will be rejected.

The United States' and Mexico's joint effort to combat the NWS outbreak involves aerial distribution of the insecticide that will kill the deadly insect and remediate its spread. However, Mexican aviation authorities have been restricting the ability of the Dynamic Aviation aircraft tasked with this job from full control of the airspace. Rollins purports that the authorities have limited times and days that Dynamic can fly, and therefore has restricted them to 60-day permits. On top of this, Mexico customs has been pulling shenanigans, blocking the importation of necessary parts and equipment that Dynamic requires to get the job done.

Rollins further wrote:

More recently, we have also been informed that Mexican customs authorities are imposing substantial import duties on critical aviation parts, dispersal equipment, and sterile  fly shipments. This is despite the fact that all materials and operations are being funded entirely by the U.S. Government to support our shared goal of stopping the northward spread of NWS and pushing the pest back toward the biological barrier of the Darién Gap. We do not understand how our official efforts to stop a common pest can be subjected to such burdensome custom duties. These delays and costs not only disrupt operations but risk delaying aircraft deployment at the precise moment when action is needed most.

Rollins initially corresponded with Mexico Ag Secy Berdegué Sacristán on this matter on April 11. This follow-up letter indicates that Mexico has not been holding up its end of the bargain. The U.S. is footing the bill for it all, so what exactly is Mexico's contribution? It is to give the Dynamic aircraft unrestricted air operations and allow the necessary equipment into the country. This is not difficult, but as was the case with the illegal influx on our Southern border, Mexico does what it wants until appropriate pressure is applied.

This is Rollins applying the pressure. If Mexico continues not to cooperate in the joint partnership, all Mexican imports of cattle, bison, and horses into the United States will cease on May 1, 2025.

The situation requires immediate attention and decisive coordination at the highest levels of your Government. I must inform you that if these issues are not resolved by Wednesday, April 30, USDA will restrict the importation of animal commodities, which consist of live cattle, bison, and equine originating from or transiting Mexico to protect the interest of the agriculture industry in the United States.

This is the role of an agriculture secretary: to protect the interests of the agricultural industry of the United States and take the necessary oversight and steps to ensure it is done. Their role is not to distribute food to illegal aliens, disenfranchise generational farmers with regulations and raids in order to ensure transgender and BIPOC farming is a thing, or enforce the farming and harvesting of DEI seeds.

As former President Joe Biden would warble, "Not a Joke.

The Biden admin spent your tax dollars on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tomato Seeds.”

You literally can’t make this up.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins threw it straight in the trash! pic.twitter.com/YS62QaN9hl

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 26, 2025

Now Rollins needs to restore Country of Origin labeling. Let's hope this NWS outbreak will kick-start that happening.

Perhaps we should reconsider our COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) policies. We used to label which countries our meat came from, we *stopped* because Canada threw a fit that Americans wanted to buy American meat over Canadian if they knew the difference on the package.

"In… pic.twitter.com/XJhcBqTCuZ

— 🏛 Aristophanes 🏛 (@Aristos_Revenge) April 1, 2025

Perhaps we should reconsider our COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) policies. We used to label which countries our meat came from, we *stopped* because Canada threw a fit that Americans wanted to buy American meat over Canadian if they knew the difference on the package.

"In 2015, the US repealed mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for beef and pork, a requirement that had been in place since the 2002 Farm Bill, due to pressure from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and potential tariffs from Canada and Mexico."

If the tariff wars are good for anything, it's reinforcing the urgency of ramping up American production and protecting America's food producers.

Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.  

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