Laredo leaders Saenz, Cuellar discuss border violence with Mexican officials

12/03/19 – Laredo Morning Times

By Julia Wallace

During their visit to Mexico City this week, Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz and Rep. Henry Cuellar bent the ears of several Mexican senators about this recent period of violence in Nuevo Laredo and offered assistance from the U.S.

However, it does not look like Mexico is willing to take it, even as Nuevo Laredo has suffered close to 40 deaths since August, and the Mexican military appeared ineffective after capturing then promptly freeing the son of cartel leader “El Chapo” Guzman, fearing deadly retributions.

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Arizona-Mexico trade relationship continues to boost border economies

12/02/19 – Chamber Business News

By Graham Bosch

Mexico is Arizona’s top trading partner, accounting for about 30 percent of the state’s exports to foreign markets, according to an extensive ongoing study by the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that business leaders, trade experts and economists agree the cross-border relationship is of the utmost importance to Arizona when it comes to trade, manufacturing, education, safety, tourism and more.

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Tents, stench, smoke: Health risks are gripping migrant camp

11/14/19 – AP News

By Nomaan Merchant

A smoke-filled stench fills a refugee camp just a short walk from the U.S.-Mexico border, rising from ever-burning fires and piles of human waste. Parents and children live in a sea of tents and tarps, some patched together with garbage bags. Others sleep outside in temperatures that recently dropped to freezing.

Justina, an asylum seeker who fled political persecution in Nicaragua, is struggling to keep her 8-month-old daughter healthy inside the damaged tent they share. The baby, Samantha, was diagnosed with pneumonia and recently released from a hospital with a dwindling supply of antibiotics.

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Mexican ex-border state governor extradited to US

AP News – 10/29/19

Mexico says it has extradited a former governor of the border state of Coahuila to face money-laundering and fraud charges in South Texas.

Jorge Juan Torres López had been indicted in 2013 in Corpus Christi on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, wire fraud and bank fraud.

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Exclusive: U.S. migrant policy sends thousands of children including hundreds of babies back to Mexico

10/11/19 – Reuters

By Kristina Cooke, Mica Rosenberg, Reade Levinson

Since January, the U.S. government has ordered 13,000 migrants under 18, including more than 400 infants, to wait with their families in Mexico for U.S. immigration court hearings, a Reuters analysis of government data found.

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, babies and toddlers are living in high-crime cities – often in crowded shelters and tents or on the streets – for the weeks or months it takes to get a U.S. asylum hearing.

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Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing

10/10/19 – Reuters

By Veronica G. Cardenas

U .S. asylum seekers camped out in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading to the closure of the crossing, witnesses and authorities said.

Hundreds of the migrants have been camped for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for cartel control of people trafficking and gang violence.

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Arizona moves to expand trade with Mexico

09/25/19 – The Border Report

By Julian Resendiz

When Americans order a product online, they take it for granted it’ll get to them on time. But when Mexican residents order merchandise from a U.S. company, they traditionally face weeklong waits for Mexican customs to clear the package.

That is about to change as an Arizona airport becomes the first in the United States to pre-clear items shipped to anywhere in Mexico. Under the SkyBridge Arizona project, Mexican customs inspectors will be based at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and approve items for immediate delivery to any Mexican city, Arizona officials say.

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