21st Century Border Initiative

Your daily border bulletin is up! Stories featured in today's bulletin are as follows:

CNN/Time Poll: All tied up in Arizona A  new CNN poll shows Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in a statistical dead heat in Arizona.

Romney Arizona Co-Chair Resigns Amid Allegation Meanwhile after allegations of misconduct rocked his office Pinal County Sheriff and Congressional Candidate Paul Babeu has stepped down as a Co-Chair for Mitt Romney in Arizona.

Immigration bills sought by Kobach get lukewarm response in Kansas In Kansas, new legislation from Immigration Mastermind Kris Kobach is dead on arrival in the state legislature.

Your Daily Border Bulletin is up! Stories featured in your border bulletin include:

Immigration and the GOP Campaign in AZ A New York Times Op-Ed examines how the Modern Day GOP has abandoned its past principled stands on immigration as integral to our national interest has now been caught in the grips of campaign rhetoric with little to back up their claims immigration anarchy.

Immigrants Trickling back To Alabama In the wake of a court injunction blocking parts of Alabama’s state passed immigration law immigrants have begun returning to Alabama. 

An In Depth Look At The Border A National Journal report examines how political rhetoric over undocumented immigration is disconnected from the everyday realities of life on the border.

Also an Open Letter from Southwest Arizona Leader to GOP Candidates  in Arizona regarding border rhetoric highlights the important economic contributions of the border to the overall economic wellbeing of the country.

The full letter from Jaime Chamberlain, Chairman  of the Board of Directors of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americasto in Nogales, AZ, highlights the importance of fully functioning ports of entry at our borders:

“All too often the southern borders get bashed in the media with negative press that make us look like the wild west. Immigration and border violence issues get the majority of the attention. We want the media and the United States to recognize that Arizona and our Santa Cruz County are much more than those negative reports. We will be opening the most modern and energy efficient port of entry in the United States in March of 2014. The Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales is currently being remodeled with the help of  approximately 200 million dollars appropriated to GSA two years ago. This is one project where government money is being used as productive investment for our economic security. We want the whole country to know what an incredible business opportunity we have with our Mexican neighbors.

“Over 3 billion dollars worth of produce and over 18 billion dollars of Maquiladora products (twin manufacturing plants) are crossed thru Nogales and the United States on a yearly basis.

These products feed American families and give jobs to hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. These figures do not include the mining and cattle industries, which are also huge economic drivers for the State and the country. U.S. trade with Mexico reached a record $460 billion dollars in 2011. Mexico is the third largest U.S. trading partner and the second largest U.S. export market. Mexico purchased over $197 billion dollars of U.S. goods, which is 13.3% of the U.S. exports worldwide. This is an increase of 20% over the previous year. Mexico buys more U.S. goods than all of the rest of Latin America ($168 billion) and more than the combined purchases of Germany, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Italy ($191 billion). U.S. sales to Mexico exceed the combined U.S. sales to Brazil, Russia, India, and China-the BRIC countries ($176 billion).

Speaker Gingrich,Georgia’s trade with Mexico totals $5.6 billion annually, and 78,000 jobs in Georgia rely  on trade with Mexico.

Senator Santorum,Pennsylvania benefits from $5.21 billion in trade with Mexico annually, and 75,200 jobs  are directly tied to this trade.

Governor Romney,Massachusetts realized over $4.15 billion in trade with Mexico in a year, and 47,500 jobs in your state are directly tied to this trade relationship.

Congressman Paul, Texas trades over $151.35 billion of goods with Mexico annually, and 807,600 jobs in Texas  are directly impacted by trade with Mexico.

For more on the important economic relationship between the United States and Mexico please see our report Realizing the Value of Crossborder Trade With Mexico.

NDN/NPI hosted a panel discussion on the current state of the economic relationship between the US and Mexico with Michael C. Camunez, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance, D. Rick Van Schoik, Director, North American Center for Transborder Studies and Simon Rosenberg, President,NDN and NPI. At the core of the discussion was the the findings of the NPI's major new report on cross border trade with Mexico. Please view the video from the event below:

Your Daily Border Bulletin is up! Stories featured in today's border bulletin include:

AZ Primary Could Push GOP Further To Right on Immigration  As the Arizona primary on February 28 nears members of the media wonder if the Republican candidates will get pulled further to the right on immigration issues.

Hundreds Rally Against Alabama Law In Alabama hundreds protest the states anti immigration law on Valentines Day, saying that the state needs to show immigrants some love and respect.

Cartel Leader Jailed In west Texas a gang leader is sentenced to death for his connection to cartel members in Mexico.

Please be sure to join us for an event on March 20th for a Discussion About Value of Mexican Tourism in the US with Rep. Charlie Gonzalez.

This event comes in time to help inform a recent Presidential Executive Order designed to significantly increase travel and tourism in the United States. 

Tourism from Mexico is already a major part of America’s travel industry landscape, delivering the second largest number of tourists into the US from any country in the world. As we look to increase domestic tourism, increasing tourism from Mexico should be a major priority for our new national strategy.  While with three times the population of Canada, Mexico only send one-fourth as many tourists.  Getting to the US is relatively easy from Mexico, per capita income is growing very rapidly, and with 10 percent of the US’s population now of Mexican descent, there is little doubt that with better strategies and more investment Mexican tourism into the US could grow significantly in the years ahead.  This event will take a deeper look at the economics of tourism from Mexico today, and offer up some ideas of expanding it in the years ahead.

Lunch will be served at noon on March 20th, and the program will begin at 12:15pm.  All of this will take place at NDN’s offices on 729 15th Street, NW on the 1st floor.  Seating is limited, so please RSVP today to reserve your spot.  And look for information closer to the event’s date on how to watch a live webcast.

Your Daily Border Bulletin is up: Stories featured in the bulletin are below.

GOP Debate Features Brawl over Immigration and Health Care As the Republican primary in Florida draws nearer, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich continued to trade blows over whose stance on immigration was more extreme.

Romney assures Florida’s Hispanic voters the GOP isn’t ‘anti-immigrant’ as primary day nears Also at last nights debate, this dynamic was on display in a major way, when the two candidates where not fighting each other, they were trying desperately to mask the Republican parties recent anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Mitt Romney furious Newt Gingrich’s over ‘anti-immigrant’charge

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Your Daily Border Bulletin is up! Today's border bulletin focuses on a recent Texas Border Coalition report on Ports of Entries along the Southwest Border.

A new report highlights some of the positive results of the Obama Administrations strategy to improve safety and commerce along the Southwest Border while also highlighting work to be done.

Any reasonable look at the data from the past several years makes clear that the new joint Mexican-US strategy is improving the region. Deportations of criminal immigrants, southbound seizures of bulk cash and illegal guns are way up.  We have seen a steady decrease in the number of migrants crossing the border, the number of undocumented immigrants in the country.  Finally crime rates along the US side of the border are all down.  Just last year El Paso, a border city across from Ciudad Juarez one of the most dangerous cities in the world, was named the safest city in the country with a population of 500,000 or more.

While the violence on the Mexican side of the border is still at unacceptable levels, there has been no measurable spillover of the cartel violence into the United States.  So while the things we don’t want happening along the US side of the border are decreasing, the things we do want – trade and legal traffic of people – are increasing.

The Texas Border Coalition’s recent report on the need to fund our ports of entry more fully gets much right in its acknowledgement that the trade relationship between Mexico and the U.S. is of profound significance for the both of our countries. NDN recently released a report on this important relationship. We also agree that we absolutely need to do more to staff our ports of entries in order to facilitate the movement of legal commerce, people and stop narcotics from entering the country.

However it is factually incorrect to say that the federal government does not have a strategy for the ports of entries along the southwest border.

For the full piece be sure to check out the rest of todays border bulletin here.

Also Featured in today's Border Bulletin Congressman Silvestre Reyes weighs in on the work the Administration is doing in the Southwest:

Congressman Silvestre Reyes, has been trying to pass legislation to enhance our ports of entry to the tune of $5 billion dollars for some time, points out that the President Obama’s 2012 budget includes increases in CBP officers:

“I understand that true border security is not achieved through higher fences, but by combining needed changes in immigration laws with additional resources and personnel to staff the border and ports of entry. Expanded funding is also needed to accommodate trade and commerce to increase jobs and opportunity in our region.” Congressman Reyes continued, “I have also urged the White House and the House Appropriations Committee to further increase the number of CBP officers, and both President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal and the Fiscal Year 2012 House Homeland Security Appropriations bill included funding for an additional 300 CBP officers.“

For supplemental information on the Administrations Counternarcotic Strategy please click here.

Please join us on January 26th, at 12:00 pm EST for a discussion about the current state of the economic relationship between the US and Mexico.  Joining for lunch will be a terrific panel, including with Michael C. Camunez, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance, D. Rick Van Schoik, Director, North American Center for Transborder Studies and Simon Rosenberg, President, NDN and NPI. At the core of the discussion will be the findings of the New Policy Institute's major new report, Realizing the Value  of our Cross Border Trade with Mexico.

Among the key findings from our new report:

• Mexico has become the U.S.’s third-ranked commercial partner and the second most important market for U.S. exports; Mexico spent $163 billion on U.S. goods in 2010.

• U.S. sales to Mexico are larger than all U.S. exports to the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) combined, as well as all combined sales to Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

• Twenty-two states count Mexico as their No. 1 or No. 2 export market: Mexico is the largest export market to the two largest economies in the country in Texas and California. Other states that count Mexico as their largest export market are Arizona, New Mexico, and New Hampshire.  It is the second largest export market for states such as Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee.

Please join us next week for what will be a terrific discussion.  Lunch will be served at noon, and the program will begin at 12:15pm.  It will all take place the NDN/NPI offices, 729 15th, NW, in our first floor event space.  To reserve your slot please RSVP today. 

Your Daily Border Bulletin is up! Below are some of the stories featured in todays bulletin:

Washington Post Editorial Board Supports New Immigration Regulations  The Obama Administration new regulations which would help to ensure that families which contain an American citizen and immigrant children or spouse stay together have spurred a discussion about some of the more arcane problems associated with the system.

Upcoming Elections in Mexico Could Effect Border Region The July 1st elections in Mexico could have a significant effect on the southwest border region as well as our own elections in November.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio To Chair Perry's Arizona Campaign After campaigning in both New Hampshire and Iowa, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has announced that he will chair Gov. Rick Perry's campaign in Arizona.

Also This Thursday, January 12th, at 2:00 pm ET please join Simon Rosenberg, President of NDN, Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice and Ruben Gallego, State Representative, Arizona District 16 for a discussion:"A Changed Landscape: How Recent Events Have Changed The Debates Over Immigration, the Border and The Political Attitudes of Latinos."

If you wish to participate in the event please do so by going to the NDN/NPI channel at 2:00 pm ET on Thursday, January 12th, on the webcasting platform Spreecast.

On the Spreecast platform you can watch the conversation in real time over the web, chat about the discussion, ask written questions or even join the moderated conversation via video if you have a webcam.

Again all you have to do is click on our our Spreecast channel to participate in the conversation.  While it is not necessary to RSVP, we welcome you doing so on our spreecast page.

Today the New Policy Institute’s 21st Century Border Initiative released a major new report researched by The North American Center For Transborder Studies (NACTS) at Arizona State University, “Realizing the Value of our Cross Border Trade with Mexico."

For the full report please click here. For the executive summary please see below:

Executive Summary

The United States urgently needs a sustained national conversation regarding how to realize greater value in our crossborder trade with Mexico, and the benefits of increasing efficiencies at our shared border. As the export sector assumes more importance and the U.S. economy struggles to create high-quality jobs, our nation needs to discover every dollar of value in our relationship with our nation’s number two export market: Mexico.

Trade With Mexico Hidden In Plain Sight
Trade is an important tool in policymakers’ economic development toolbox. Ever since the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and given the complementarity of the U.S. and Mexican economies, bilateral trade has grown exponentially, reaching a record high of nearly $400 billion in 2010. Mexico is now the third-ranked commercial partner of the U.S. and the second largest market for U.S. exports. Mexico spent $163 billion on U.S. goods in 2010, and trade with Mexico sustains six million jobs in the U.S.  This is economic value that for many in the U.S. remains “hidden in plain sight.”

To provide a better idea of what this commercial partnership means to our country, U.S. sales to Mexico are larger than all U.S. exports to the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) combined, as well as all combined sales to Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Twenty-two states count Mexico as their No. 1 or No. 2 export market, and it is a top-five market for 14 other states. American consumers and businesses import large quantities of jointly produced products and services from Mexico such as automobiles, produce, and petroleum, just to name a few. Still, for every dollar Mexico makes from exporting to the U.S., it will in turn spend 50 cents on U.S. products or services, which are a considerable benefit to our economy and demonstrates the truly unique quality of this trade or “joint production” relationship.

U.S.-Mexico Border Management: Building the Infrastructure for Future CompetitivenessSharing a 2,000-mile long border with Mexico needs to be recognized as both a challenge and an opportunity. Though improving, our border’s current infrastructure and capacity today reflect the needs of a bygone era. While land ports of entry between the two nations were first envisioned to process the legitimate crossing of people, goods and services across the border, security has taking an overwhelmingly dominant role in recent years, hampering the ability of agencies to efficiently manage border traffic.

With this in mind, in May of 2010 the U.S. and Mexico signed the 21st Century Border Management Joint Declaration. Recognizing the importance of fostering the commercial relationship, both countries have agreed to coordinate efforts to enhance economic competitiveness by expediting lawful trade. The basic idea is that developing a modern and secure border infrastructure will give an added boost to our region’s safety and competitiveness in the world.

Much Opportunity, but the Real Work Has Only Just Begun
The poor infrastructure, the inadequate staffing levels and the heavy focus on security that prevails at the U.S. – Mexico border have cost both economies billions of dollars in gross output annually. It is past time for our shared border to begin to meet today’s demands, acting as a facilitator and conductor of lawful flows of goods, services and people across our nations so that we may capitalize on the full potential of our partnership. If a billion dollars’ worth of trade crosses the U.S.-Mexico border on a daily basis now while sustaining six million jobs, imagine what could be accomplished with a truly 21st century border.

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For more from our 21st Century Border Initiative website please head over to 21border.com, we update the site with new content daily. If you want to get caught up on all the latest border bulletins you can read they are all housed in the 21border archives.

The ongoing congressional investigations into ATF’s Fast and Furious gun program provides a welcome moment to take a broader look at our government’s overall approach to our border with Mexico and the security threat posed by the powerful Mexican drug cartels.

By almost any measure this administration’s approach to these challenges has been successful so far. With greater resources, better strategies and unprecedented cooperation with our Mexican neighbors, we’ve seen decreases in the illegal flow of people across the border, a drop in the undocumented immigration population in the United States, a plummeting of violent crime along the U.S. side of the border, and increases in deportation of criminal migrants in the U.S., in the interdiction of bulk cash, guns and drugs and in the removal of high level leaders of the cartels in Mexico. Despite the very real threat of violence on the Mexican side of the border, there has been virtually no spillover violence on the U.S. side, and border cities – El Paso, San Diego, Brownsville, Nogales – are among the safest cities of their size in the United States.

Importantly, while ratcheting up security operations on both sides of the border, trade flows between our two countries have not subsided – in fact they are increasing at rapid rates. Mexico now stands as the number two export market for the United States, and is its third largest trading partner. We now trade as much with Mexico as we do with the UK, Germany and Japan combined, and almost as much as we do with China each year.

The “gun-walking” strategies of ATF, begun under the Bush administration, thus need to be seen in a broader context of a much more aggressive strategy by our government in recent years to combat the Mexican drug cartels and improve the border region. These specific gun interdiction programs were designed to attack one of the more pernicious causes of the violence in Mexico – lax gun laws in the United States, particularly in Texas and Arizona, which have allowed hundreds of thousands of guns to flow into the hands of the Mexican cartels in recent years, contributing directly to the deaths of tens of thousands of Mexicans.

In the case of “Fast and Furious,” when this particular operation was determined to have been out of control, the acting head of ATF was removed, the U.S. attorney resigned, the program terminated and an investigation launched. But the failure of this tactical approach to the gun problem, begun in the previous administration, should not cloud the eyes of policy makers to the much broader set of successes we’ve seen in recent years. In fact, it should encourage Congress to be discussing what more can be done to build on our recent success to weaken the cartels and improve the border region. Here are some things that we might be able to do in the coming years along these lines:

1) Confirm a New Head of ATF. ATF has been without a Senate confirmed chief since 2006. Republicans have refused to allow a confirmation hearing for the current nominee, nominated by President Obama in November 2010. Without strong leadership Congress should expect ATF to have management and operational problems.

2) Work with Texas and Arizona to Slow the Gun Flow Into Mexico. While much has been made by Congress in recent weeks of the several thousand guns allowed to walk into Mexico by ATF, the real issue is the hundreds of thousands of guns which have moved into Mexico in recent years from Arizona and Texas in recent years. News reports suggest there are thousands of largely unregulated gun shops along the Mexican border who are knowingly selling powerful “long guns” to the cartels. More must be done to stop these flows.

Along these lines, concerned congressional leaders could take one important step today that would be to condemn the law suit being brought by gun sellers against the U.S. government to block a new common sense ATF requirement that gun shops report the name of any customer who buys more than two high-powered “long guns” in a five-day period.

3) Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform. While the Obama administration has done much to improve the very broken immigration system in recent years, a smart bi-partisan proposal to fix the rest of the system waits congressional action. The legislation would better regulate the “future flow” of immigrants, which would cut down on the number of illegal migrants coming to the US, and create legal status for those undocumented immigrations already here. While much has been made of the vast undocumented population in the U.S. in recent years, having this many people here in the country operating outside the law every day, many without proper identification, needs to be seen as a potential major security threat to the U.S. Legalizing the undocumented population will bring them from the shadows, allow them to become public and legal contributors to society, and drain the cartels from easy recruits here inside the U.S.

Congress’s recent attention to our government’s strategies to improve the border region and combat the Mexican cartels is a welcome development. But given the seriousness of the issues here, the American people need more than political grandstanding and silly show trials by politicians without better things to do. The response to these regional challenges by our government has been very successful. Our border is safer. Our immigration system is better. The cartels are being weakened. Trade with Mexico is flourishing. But more must be done, and Congress owes it to the American people to stay focused on what more they can to do to build on our recent success, and resist the temptation to score cheap political points on grave and serious matters.

This piece originally ran in the Politico on 11/2/11.