Quality of life gap between U.S. & Mexican border communities decreased between 2000 & 2010 – #MexFacts

To learn more, join us TOMORROW, Thursday, May 23 beginning at 3:30pm (EDT) for the launch of “The State of the Border Report.”

Live webcast: http://bit.ly/StateofBorder

Op-ed: Accountable border security helps build public trust

By Edward Alden, Bryan Robers and John Whitley, Politico, 5/21/2013

The immigration reform bill before the Senate is called the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. The order is no accident. Border security is the linchpin, and few Republicans will support the broader legislation unless they are convinced the border can be secured and that the United States will not see another surge in illegal immigration as it did following the 1986 reform bill.

But how can Congress know whether the borders are secure? Despite an enormous buildup of Border Patrol agents, fencing and technology over the past two decades, the U.S. government has yet to assess whether these expenditures have actually been effective in reducing illegal immigration. In a new report for the Council on Foreign Relations titled “Managing Illegal Immigration to the United States: How Effective is Enforcement?” we argue that the administration can gain congressional and public trust only by developing and publicly reporting real measures of the effectiveness of border enforcement. Such accountability, coupled with better congressional oversight, would help reassure a skeptical public that the U.S. government is indeed serious about controlling illegal migration.

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Long & unpredictable border wait times cost billions of dollars a year – #MexFacts

Interested in learning more about “The State of the Border”?Join us this Thursday, May 23 starting at 3:30pm (EDT): http://bit.ly/StateofBorder

U.S.-Mexico trade grew from $71 billion in 1995 to $255 billion in 2010 – #MexFacts

Interested in learning more about “The State of the Border”?

Join us Thursday, May 23, 2013 starting at 3:30pm:

http://bit.ly/StateofBorder

Border Cities Demonstrate Importance Of U.S.-Mexico Relations

VOXXI, 5/19/2013

For those who live along the U.S.-Mexico border, especially in large cities, the relationship between the two countries is different than for those who live elsewhere in the U.S. It’s difficult for those outside this area to understand, because despite the line that legally separates the two countries, the people both north and south of it, are neighbors. They depend on each other for economic vibrancy, personal relationships and cultural attachment. In spite of the backlash against illegal immigration and the fear of out-of-control drug violence along the Mexican side of the border, border cities in the U.S. have a unique relationship with their neighbor to the south.

Recently, San Diego’s Mayor Bob Filner looked across the border to Tijuana as a new business partner. For him, as for most of the politicians in the San Diego area, it’s not about “us versus them.” It’s about all of us. Together. According to a recent New York Times article, Filner has opened a satellite office in Tijuana. He also says he plans to place a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics to be hosted jointly with Tijuana. When either Filner or the Mayor of Tijuana, Carlos Bustamante, refer to the area, they speak of us—not of “us and them.”

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A border fence will hurt the economic relationship of Mexico and U.S.

Photo: Guillermo Arias

Voxxi, 5/13/2013

Mexico is the United States’ third largest trading partner, after Canada and China, in terms of total trade in goods, while the U.S. is Mexico’s largest trading partner. As such, the economic ties of the U.S. and Mexico are significantly important to the economy and society in both countries.

Further, the U.S.-Mexico border is not a static line drawn on a map, but a dynamic and ever-evolving place along which substantial daily interaction takes place. Yet the resounding refrain we repeatedly hear from some members of Congress is that building a 1,969-mile fence to separate us from one of our largest economic partners, and the eleventh largest economy in the world, is a key component to solving the issues presented by an outdated immigration system and a requirement that must be completed before moving forward with proposed immigration reforms. To be clear, there is a need for secure borders, but there is also a need for further streamlining and efficiently facilitating the daily cross-border flows of people, goods and services important to the bi-national economic relationship of the United States and Mexico — an economic relationship the following facts highlight.

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Debate over amnesty looms over efforts to reform immigration laws

Los Angeles Times, 5/12/2013

In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas.

A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauthorized residents — helping many secure a slice of the American dream but also giving fuel to critics who sought to turn “amnesty” into a pejorative.

Less than 30 years later, the number of immigrants living in the country illegally is thought to have nearly quadrupled, and the freighted baggage of amnesty looms over new efforts to reform the nation’s immigration laws.

With four times as many people potentially eligible, today’s mass legalization would occur on a much larger scale. The specifics of the current proposal are different, the global economy is different, and the immigrants themselves are different, hailing from South Korea as well as Mexico and fanning out from traditional enclaves like Los Angeles to populate small towns across America.

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San Diego 2024 Olympics in Tijuana? How a cross-border Games could work

The Christian Science Monitor, 4/28/13

Can one summer Olympics be held in two countries? Or in Oklahoma? Those are questions that have surfaced in recent days as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) looks for bid cities to host the 2024 summer Olympics.The USOC has contacted 35 cities as part of a feeling-out process.

Perhaps the most intriguing candidate was San Diego, which has submitted a joint bid with Tijuana, Mexico. USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said the bid “would have its challenges,” according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. “We haven’t looked at it carefully. We just learned about it.” Yet the problems might not be so difficult. No Olympic Games have been shared between two neighboring host countries, but the world of soccer has been dividing is major events between countries for years. South Korea and Japan shared the 2002 World Cup, and the European Championships were held in Austria and Switzerland in 2008 and Poland and Ukraine last year.

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As President Obama Heads to Mexico, Americans Have Mixed Views of Neighbor Across the Border

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs & The Mexico Institute, 4/29/13

President Obama will visit Mexico on May 2, where he is expected to discuss ways to deepen US-Mexico economic relations and reinforce cultural and commercial ties between the two countries. While still plagued  by issues related to organized crime, today Mexico has one of the world’s fastest growing  economies, and it is the United States’ second largest trading partner and third largest source of oil.

But a just-completed survey (April 12-14) conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows that American views of Mexico are at their lowest point ever in Chicago Council  surveys  and  relatively  few  are  aware  of  the  depth of bilateral   economic  integration.  At  the same  time, however, a majority still say that ties with Mexico are important and consider Mexico an economic partner rather than a rival. Taken together, the results suggest that increased public awareness of bilateral endeavors could boost support for increased economic and energy integration in the future.

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In Trek North, First Lure Is Mexico’s Other Line

The New York Times, 4/26/13

In Washington, the biggest immigration overhaul in decades would tighten border security between Mexico and the United States to stem the flow of illegal crossings. But there is another border making the task all the more challenging: Mexico’s porous boundary with Central America, where an increasing number of migrants heading to the United States cross freely into Mexico under the gaze of the Mexican authorities. So many Central Americans are fleeing the violence, crime and economic stagnation of their homes that American officials have encountered a tremendous spike in migrants making their way through Mexico to the United States.

American arrests of illegal crossers from countries other than Mexico — mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — more than doubled along the southwest border of the United States last year, to 94,532 from 46,997 in 2011.

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