Baker fellows attend migration conference on border

Baker fellows attend migration conference on border

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff

If you’re going to study the U.S.-Mexico border, the two Laredos would be a good place to start.

Four representatives from Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy went to the twin cities on the Rio Grande last month for a conference sponsored by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington.

Mark Scheid, managing director for programs and international studies, was accompanied by Christopher Bronk, fellow in technology, society and public policy; Erika de la Garza, program director, Latin American initiative; and Joan Neuhaus Schaan, fellow in homeland security and terrorism.

MARK SCHIED

Cars cross a bridge that spans the U.S.- Mexico border in Laredo.

The two-day conference, titled “Managing Borders in a New Security Environment,” included panel discussions with experts from both sides of the border and a tour of facilities in Laredo, Texas, and its sister city, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Bronk served as a consular officer with the U.S. State Department at the consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, from 2003 to 2005. 

While acknowledging regional differences between Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo, Bronk called the border an “immensely important issue in U.S. political dialogue.” He noted that it is the primary conduit for both illegal migration and narcotics trafficking into the United States. By the same token, many of the illegal guns entering Mexico come from the United States, so both countries have an interest in controlling what crosses the border.

Trade between Mexico and the United States topped $330 billion in 2006, according to U.S. Government figures, meaning both economies have a lot riding on smooth operations along the border.

Bronk appeared on a panel on the use of information technology. “With representatives present from the Border Patrol, DHS Customs and Border Protection, Mexican Customs & Migration along with representatives of both U.S. State Department and Mexican Foreign Ministry discussion shifted to options for locally-constructed solutions to alleviate traffic congestion, reduce violence and make the U.S.-Mexico border a more livable region,” Bronk said.

Handling problems locally

According to Bronk, the perception that leaders in the respective national capitals don’t understand the unique problems of the border inspires local initiatives.

“Civil servants of both countries in the border region, frequently at odds with officialdom in both distant national capitals, increasingly recognize the need to work together on a host of issues,” Bronk said. “Often local consensus spanning the frontier is attainable, however, leadership in both Mexico City and Washington D.C. may appear aloof or out of touch with the cross-border bureaucratic and policy community.”

Following up this theme of local control, de la Garza described managing the border as “an extremely complex task that requires the will of border residents and functionaries as well as that of the people in Washington D.C. and Mexico City.”

She cited one example of how such cooperation could be improved.

“During our visit to the Nuevo Laredo point of entry, the head of immigration there mentioned that sometimes a bus on the U.S. side would unload all its passengers at the bridge without giving the Mexican authorities a warning or even a list of the people they are deporting or sending back. He explained that even though his office and its counterpart in Laredo had very good relations and collaborated with one another, the same was not true with other U.S. entities.”  

While conference speakers promoted the idea of cooperation between U.S. and Mexican authorities, Neuhaus pointed out that many U.S. officials view corruption in Mexico as so endemic that they are hesitant to share sensitive information.

Neuhaus emphasized the benefits of a well-policed border to those on the north side of the Rio Grande.

“Maintaining control of borders is essential for the security and prosperity of a nation,” she said. She pointed to the dramatic upsurge in violence in Nuevo Laredo as evidence, calling the city on the Texas side a de facto “green zone,” an oasis from the gunfights and kidnappings that have forced many businesses in Nuevo Laredo to close.

Reciprocity helps relationships

The Laredo conference was actually the second part of a series of meetings on approaches to borders in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. De la Garza attended the first gathering in Brussels, Belgium, in May. She said one of the main themes was the issue of reciprocity.

“For the most part U.S. unilateral actions and decisions that affect people of other countries are not well received in Europe, as well as in Latin America and other regions,” de la Garza said. “The Mexico-U.S. border is no exception.”

In that regard, she noted the controversy surrounding the recent decision of the U.S. government to build a wall on its side of the border. “It will certainly not foster a better bilateral relationship,” she observed.

After the first day of discussions, conference organizers took participants to visit the ports of entry on both sides of the river. The magnitude of the traffic, (more than 80,000 loaded trucks cross each way, according to figures provided by the Laredo Development Foundation, (http://www.ldfonline.org/products.asp?cat=66&hierarchy=0) impressed Scheid. “We were told six or seven trucks passed through every minute,” he said.

Scheid said conference participants had expected the event would closely follow the passing of U.S. immigration reform legislation in Washington. As it turned out, the measure stalled in the Senate in early July. As a result, Bronk said, “The conference permitted a large group of academics, functionaries and other interested individuals to spend some time mulling over the question, ‘Now what?'”

Working together for mutual benefit

Bronk said that notwithstanding the demise of immigration reform in Washington, the problems of the border won’t go away.

“Good ideas exist, but the political will regarding risk taking for new policy largely does not,” he said. “Thus we maintain a status quo of political neglect on migration, drugs and the other issues of import to the border region. This conference stood as a firm signpost to declare that even in the absence of new legislation, Mexicans and Americans should continue to work to effect change in the border region in whatever manner permissible, even if that work goes largely unsupported by legislative bodies in both national capitals.”

Scheid said the conference gave him a great sense of the complexity of immigration and cross-border issues.

De la Garza highlighted plans at the Baker Institute’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program to bring together a team of researchers from both countries to explore three initial research topics: immigration, security and economic development.

“A bi-national approach to border issues might seem like an obvious step toward building trust and understanding and to foster cooperation between the two countries,” she said. “However, most — if not all — research done so far has been conducted by each individual country. Through our border program we will produce new bilateral research and policy analysis and recommendations on key issues affecting the boundary shared by Mexico and the United States.”