Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Runway
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors
After landing on Runway 13 at MFE; we exited the runway to the left to taxi to the gate. During the turn from the runway the nose wheel steering failed with the nose wheel stuck full left deflection. The Captain stopped the aircraft before any landing gear exited the paved surface.  We attempted to reset the nose wheel steering by turning it off and back on; but it remained inoperative. The Control Tower cleared a twin engine light aircraft for takeoff while we were attempting to troubleshoot the problem; and I queried the Tower to make sure we were clear of the runway hold short line since we could not see it behind us.  The tower said that we were clear and we could remain at our location until a tug arrived to tow us in to the gate.  As we were waiting for the tug the tower cleared a business jet to land on Runway 13.  As a precaution I looked as far back as I could and saw that it was apparent our tail was still over the hold short line for the runway. In order to try to get us clear of the active runway the Captain and I elected to attempt to pull the nose wheel steering circuit breaker and reset it to see if we could straighten the nose wheel and taxi so the tail was clear of the hold short line.  The steering remained inoperative; however; so I informed the Tower that we were; in fact; not clear and that the landing traffic would have to be capable of landing and holding short of our taxiway.  The tug eventually arrived and towed the aircraft to the gate.Cause of the nose wheel steering failure is unknown. Contract maintenance was called out and was able to reset the system at the gate.The danger was the miscommunication between us and the Tower as to whether we were clear of the active runway; and the subsequent takeoff and landing clearances being issued.  We sent a message to dispatch via ACARS from the taxiway to which the response was to tell us to call maintenance from the gate.  It would have helped if maintenance could have sent a message via ACARS describing the steps to reset the nose wheel steering; or if we could perform the procedure with maintenance on the cell phone from the taxiway.  This would have sped up the process of getting clear of the active runway.
CRJ-700 First Officer (FO) reported they were unable to continue taxi after landing when the nosewheel steering failed. ATC continued operations to the runway even though they were not clear of the runway.