U.S.-Mexico border, security cooperation & state elections – Weekly News Summary: May 17

The Mexico Institute’s “Weekly News Summary,” released every Friday afternoon summarizes the week’s most prominent Mexico headlines published in the English-language press, as well as the most engaging opinion pieces by Mexican columnists.

What the English-language press had to say…

A bipartisan immigration reform bill survived another week under review by the Senate Judiciary Committee [see this useful graphic by The Washington Post containing rulings to key amendments to the bill]. A  Los Angeles Times editorial pointed out that as baby boomers retire and U.S. birthrates continue to decline, immigrants will be needed to fill labor gaps. A different article in the same paper questioned whether or not a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would lead to an increase of the unauthorized population similar to the increase that followed the IRCA legalization of 1986.

VOXXI, a news website, argued that while border security should be a factor in the immigration reform debate, improving the efficiency of cross-border flows would provide a huge economic boost to both countries. The New York Times, meanwhile, highlighted San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s efforts to reach out to his counterpart in Tijuana and address border inefficiencies.

Op-ed: Conservatives for Immigration Reform

By Kimberley A. Strassel, The Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2013

The Heritage Foundation on Monday released a report designed to kill immigration reform. A few days later, nearly 30 leaders, hailing from the core of the conservative movement—think tanks, faith groups, political and advocacy organizations—signed a public letter backing the congressional process. Which got more notice? The media glory in conflict, and so they devoted this week to the angry feud/war/battle in the GOP over immigration reform. The evidence? One research document from one think tank. The real news is the growing unity among conservative leaders and groups over the need to at least embrace the challenge of reform. This is no 2007.

At the height of that past fray over immigration—as restrictionists whipped up seething grass-roots anger against reform, drowning out proponents—Heritage released a similar report. It fueled a raging fire, and played a singular role in derailing reform. This time the Heritage report—which purports to show how much a founding principle of America will “cost” taxpayers—was coolly dismissed by peers. Members of influential conservative groups—from Americans for Tax Reform to the Cato Institute to the American Action Forum—immediately held a press call demolishing the report’s numbers, methodology and analysis.

Read more…

Survey: American attitudes towards Immigration Reform

Please click here to read the survey brief.

Obama Visits Mexico – Weekly News Summary: May 3rd

The Mexico Institute’s “Weekly News Summary,” released every Friday afternoon summarizes the week’s most prominent Mexico headlines published in the English-language press, as well as the most engaging opinion pieces by Mexican columnists.

What the English-language press had to say…

This week, President Obama met with Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto. During his visit Obama sought to recast the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relationship in terms of economic and not just security, cooperation. He called for an end to “old stereotypes” and a need “to recognize new realities.” In an op-ed for Fox News Latino, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza argued the time is ripe to advance bilateral relations in terms of security, migration and trade.

Years of “unprecedented closeness” and security cooperation between U.S. and Mexican intelligence agencies were said to be in jeopardy. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, TIME Magazine and The Washington Post all commented on the current Mexican government’s decision to curb American involvement in the war against violent drug cartels.

Two recently conducted surveys – one prepared by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Woodrow Wilson Center; the other by the Pew Research Center – presented interesting results regarding American attitudes towards Mexico and Mexican views towards Americans.

The Peña Nieto administration’s reformist agenda enjoyed yet another victory when a bill to reform Mexico’s tightly controlled telecommunications sector won final approval in the Mexican Congress. Despite this, however, Reuters reported on the growing tensions within the Pacto por México, and said further cooperation between the three main political parties would likely be put on hold until a vote-buying scandal is resolved. Meanwhile, The Christian Science Monitor reported on the joint bid by San Diego and Tijuana to hold the first U.S.-Mexico cross-border Olympic games in 2024.

Obama says US-Mexico stereotypes must be broken, portrays Mexico as a rising nation

Washington Post, 5/3/2013

Calling for an end to “old stereotypes,” President Barack Obama on Friday portrayed Mexico as an emerging nation that is remaking itself and said the U.S.-Mexico relationship should be defined by shared prosperity, not by threats that both countries face. “It’s time to recognize new realities,” he declared.

In a speech to a predominantly student audience, Obama conceded that the root of much violence in Mexico is the demand for drugs in the United States, and acknowledged that most guns used to commit crime in this country come from the U.S. But he said an improving economy is changing Mexico and improving its middle class.

Read more…

Showing Grass-Roots Support for Immigration Overhaul

New York Times, 5/1/2013

Tens of thousands of immigrants, Latinos and other supporters of an overhaul of the immigration system turned out on Wednesday for marches, rallies and prayer vigils, hoping to show Congress that momentum is building for a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

Instead of concentrating on large May Day demonstrations, organizers said they had chosen to hold smaller actions in more than 100 cities nationwide to draw more local supporters.

Read more… 

Obama Trip to Mexico Keeps Focus on Immigration Reform (Video)

Voice of America, 4/28/13

Washington’s political cacophony will be muffled this week, with Congress in recess and President Barack Obama scheduled to travel outside the United States.  Even so, the president’s trip to Mexico and Central America will shine a spotlight on efforts to overhaul America’s immigration system.

President Obama had hoped to go to Mexico touting new gun-control laws that would impede the flow of American firearms to Mexico’s notoriously vicious drug cartels.  The drug war has claimed thousands of lives in Mexico in recent years, but Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged to continue the fight.

Read more…

Weekly News Summary: April 19

The Mexico Institute’s “Weekly News Summary,” released every Friday afternoon summarizes the week’s most prominent Mexico headlines published in the English-language press, as well as the most engaging opinion pieces by Mexican columnists.

What the English-language press had to say…

An 844-page Senate immigration bill was finally released this Tuesday. A New York Times editorial voiced concerns that the “fixation” with border security could endanger the bill’s “heart and soul:” a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. Jason Marczak, in an op-ed for CNN said comprehensive immigration reform, by facilitating labor movement between the United States and Mexico, would increase regional competitiveness. Two additional op-eds – one by Roberto Suro and Jorge Castañeda, the other by Luis Rubio – argued for greater involvement by the Mexican government in the immigration reform debate. The Atlantic ran a piece on Mexico’s changing economic and demographic profile, concluding that it is unlikely that a path to citizenship would lead to a flood of new immigrants from Mexico.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: Immigration and the knowledge economy

The Washington Post, 4/10/201

Earlier this year I started teaching a class on entrepreneurship at an after-school program in my community. The middle-school students put together business plans, made their products and even got an opportunity to sell them.

One day I asked my students what they thought about going to college. One of my top aspiring entrepreneurs told me he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to go to college because he’s undocumented. His family is from Mexico, and they moved here when he was a baby. Many students in my community are in the same situation; they moved to the United States so early in their lives that they have no memories of living anywhere else.

These students are smart and hardworking, and they should be part of our future

Read more…

Immigration Reform: The Coming Fight Over the Low-Skilled Worker Visa

Time, 4/8/13

At the heart of a soon-to-be-released bipartisan compromise on immigration reform is a controversial proposal that would create several new government bureaus and offices to oversee a new generation of legal, low-skilled immigrants—as many as 200,000 a year when the program gets up and running.

The proposal tries to address the ultimate cause of illegal immigration: not merely porous borders or unscrupulous employers, but the immutable fact that jobs here pay better here than ones back there. When Washington has tried to end illegal immigration in the past, Congress has ignored that simple labor market reality. This time, surprisingly, instead of trying to stop the illegal flow of low-skilled foreign workers to unfilled American jobs by increasing penalties and enforcement, the bipartisan bloc of Senators proposes to legalize it, in part.

Read more…