Author: Staff

A friend who regularly drives back and forth between Houston and deep inside the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas reports that things have gotten eerily quiet there — at least from the standpoint of an American traveler searching for government security forces.During a recent foray, there were just two checkpoints along along the highways he traveled. Previously, everyone who traveled on the road from the border city of Matamoros to Ciudad Victoria was required to stop their vehicle, get out, and step away during an inspection.This time, it was extremely  laid back. No need to even exit the vehicle or even open doors. There were no were convoys of soldiers, and even the federal police presence — although he did see three cruisers parked together under a shade tree — was minimal.via Pena Nieto’s Mexico? Narco soldiers now hard to find in Texas border state | Narco Confidential | a Chron.com...

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partners, and the eleventh largest economy in the world, is a key component to solving the issues presented by an outdated immigration system and a requirement that must be completed before moving forward with proposed immigration reforms.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.via A border fence will hurt the economic relationship of Mexico and...