WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, led the entire Alabama House delegation along with other bipartisan lawmakers in demanding the Mexican government bring a resolution to its “unlawful, hostile, and calculated” efforts against Birmingham-based Vulcan Materials.
In a letter to Mexican Ambassador Roberto Lazzeri Montaño on Monday, the lawmakers highlighted how, in light of a new ruling from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Tribunal that found Mexico had violated international law for its treatment of Vulcan Materials, the Mexican government must now “rectify the illegal actions and fully restore American property rights.”
“The tribunal definitively dismantled Mexico’s public narrative, ruling that the government’s administrative measures and accusations were founded on prejudice or preference rather than reason or fact, lacked good faith and transparency, and were improperly weaponized as a manufactured pretext to unlawfully shut down a legitimate American enterprise,” the lawmakers wrote.
But Sewell and the other lawmakers noted that the tribunal’s decision does not cover all of the “predatory” actions that Mexico has taken against Vulcan’s properties on the country’s Caribbean coast.
In 2022, the Mexican government shut down Vulcan’s operations via military force. In 2023, Mexico’s government invaded and seized the company’s port facility.
A year later, Mexico’s Interior Department issued a decree declaring Vulcan’s seaport and quarries as a natural protected area, which aimed to prohibit the company’s operations on its own land.
“I am proud to lead this bipartisan letter demanding the fair treatment of Vulcan Materials and Alabama workers in Mexico,” Sewell said in a statement. “For almost a decade, senior members of the Mexican government have used illegal tactics to intimidate Vulcan Materials and their workers, including a military seizure of Vulcan-owned property in Mexico.”
U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, co-led the letter, calling the Mexican government’s campaign against Vulcan “unacceptable.”
“No American company should have its property seized or its operations threatened by a foreign government acting outside the rule of law,” Palmer said in a statement. “Mexico must end these actions, respect Vulcan’s property rights, and demonstrate that it intends to be a trustworthy trading partner of the United States.”
Earlier this year, the House passed the Defending American Property Abroad Act, which aims to push back on Mexico’s attacks on Vulcan by deterring and punishing foreign countries that seize, nationalize or interfere with property or assets owned by U.S. businesses.
All of Alabama’s House members signed the letter.