Heritage senior fellow James Carafano recently traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border and filed a series of reports which will be featured here throughout the week. It is the fastest growing county in Arizona, with a population of over a million. Pima County’s other mark of distinction is that has more border with Mexico than any other part of the state—about 130 miles of it. All that might suggest that Pima County (over 9,000 square miles straddling the south-central part of the Arizona) would be bearing the brunt of border security …
Last week, with the signing of his pen on the Omnibus Spending Bill, President Barack Obama ended a pilot program designed to allow Mexican trucking companies to ship goods deep inside the United States. While controversial with some quarters of the American public, the program was necessary to ensure U.S. compliance with the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as NAFTA. With the program no longer funded, the United States would be willingly violating that trade treaty. As a result, the government of Mexico announced plans to retaliate against …
Yesterday, the Obama Administration sought to quiet mounting anxiety about Mexican drug violence and border spillover when it named the nation’s next Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, police chief in Seattle on March 11. The position, the Vice President noted, will no longer be considered a cabinet-level office. The Vice President Biden used the opportunity to offer the most extensive White House comments thus far on the Mexico situation. The challenges facing the Chief are going to be daunting. Nowhere is that more true than in the southwest border today. All …
In the first two months of 2009, there were about 200 fatalities in Afghanistan including 29 U.S. troops. But in January alone, over 1,000 people have died in Mexico’s escalating drug war. Fueled by a $25 billion a year industry, Mexico’s two largest drug cartels have an estimated combined 100,000 foot soldiers battling each other and Mexico’s own 130,000 strong army. The increased violence has not been confined to Mexico. Phoenix, Arizona, has seen a spike in Mexican drug-smuggling related kidnappings and Atlanta, Georgia, has become the principal distribution center …
Fears that pro-Teamster protectionists in Congress would seek to kill the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Cross Border Demonstration Project”, that has allowed a carefully selected group of Mexican trucking operators full access to the U.S. road network have been realized. The Supplemental FY 2009 Omnibus spending bill (aka “Porkulus II”) that is currently being rushed through Congress by the Democrats contains sections (SEC. 135) that impose onerous new safety inspection requirements on the Mexican carriers as well as (Sec. 136) directly barring new funding for the USDOT pilot program. Since it is …
The Mexican government’s war with international drug cartels has been spilling over into the United States at an alarming rate. Just yesterday the Los Angeles Times reported that Phoenix has become a “kidnap-for-ransom capital.” Today at noon, The Heritage Foundation will host a panel titled: The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Cartel Crisis and What the U.S. Should Do About It. Speakers include: General Barry R. McCaffrey (ret.) President, BR McCaffrey Associates LLC Stephen Johnson Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, Office of the Secretary of …
Liberals and their pro-amnesty allies in the White House always try and frame the debate over illegal immigration as a binary choice: either we grant illegal immigrants already here citizenship or we spend massive resources forcibly deporting them. A study released yesterday by the Center for Immigration Studies provides more evidence that this is a false choice. Using data from monthly Census surveys as recent as May of this year, and then extrapolating from previous research, the report concluded that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States dropped …
Luis Rubio looks at NAFTA from Mexico’s perspective in the Latin Business Chronicle: NAFTA was the result of a new economic strategy. Above all, however, it represented a major political shift. Instead of looking at the United States as the source of conflict and irritation, as it had historically been portrayed, the new Salinas de Gortari administration (1988-1994) sought out its northern neighbor as a source of stability, support and institutional strength. The objective was to borrow a rules-based system that Mexico lacked. … There is no question that NAFTA …
No wonder Europe loves Barack Obama: while Obama is promising unilateral withdrawal from NAFTA unless Mexico agrees to new terms to protect U.S. union jobs, the European Union is working to reduce trade barriers with Mexico. The AP reports: The European Union’s executive commission on Tuesday proposed to upgrade ties with Mexico, recommending the North American nation be made a “strategic partner” for the 27-nation EU. … The plan, which still needs the backing of EU nations and the European Parliament, was also seen to improve European access to Mexico’s …
The US has pledged $400 million to Mexico to help in the fight against drug and weapons smuggling and put a stop to an issue that often plagues the US-Mexican border at its source. However, in a recent Houston Chronicle article, Texas Sheriffs are criticizing the Merida Initiative because it is spending money in Mexico rather than the US. Neither strategy is right on its own; rather the US government should be tackling the problem from both sides. Heritage expert, Dr James Carafano is calling for just that—spending on both …
