Representative Lloyd Doggett is stepping up, saying the vaquita is running out of time.
With only about 10 of the critically endangered porpoises believed to remain in the wild, Rep Doggett is demanding that the U.S. take action against Mexico over what lawmakers describe as years of failed enforcement in the vaquita's habitat.
Doggett and 38 House Democrats are urging the U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to enforce environmental obligations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
Their letter comes one year after the Commission for Environmental Cooperation determined that a U.S. complaint regarding Mexico's environmental enforcement was meritorious.
The findings were stark. Mexico banned gillnets in vaquita habitat in 2020, but investigators found fishermen continuing to use the illegal gear at the same rate. Mexico also agreed to install 850 satellite trackers on vessels operating in the Upper Gulf of California. By last year, only 10 had been installed.
Lawmakers say the failures amount to a pattern of lax enforcement that threatens conservation efforts and allows illegal fishing and totoaba trafficking to continue.
"We would like to understand what the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has done since, and what it intends to do next," the lawmakers wrote.
They are now demanding answers on whether environmental consultations with Mexico remain active, what pressure USTR has applied and when the agency could escalate the dispute to a formal panel and pursue penalties.
The letter also builds on Doggett's November 2025 effort to strengthen the USMCA's environmental protection during its mandatory six-year review.
For the vaquita, lawmakers argue, the question is no longer whether the rules exist, but whether anyone will enforce them before it is too late.
