NDN Blog

VIDEO: Michael Gomez, Mayor of Douglas, Arizona - How The Southwest Border Has Become Safer

NDN/NPI was fortunate enough to participate in the Office of Congressman Silvestre Reyes' and The University of Texas at El Paso's (UTEP) eighth annual Border Security Conference, and the Southwest Border Mayors meeting both in El Paso Texas.

While there we sat down to talk with the Mayor of Douglas, AZ Dr. Michael Gomez about the changes he has seen along the border between Mexico and the United States along the Arizona sector.

Mayor Gomez contextualized what is happening in Arizona by talking about how both the San Diego and El Paso border sectors where brought under control and what that has meant for the safety of the Arizona sector.

In the video above Mayor Gomez is referring to Operation Hold The Line and Operation Gatekeeper respectively. Both of these programs were successful in making the El Paso and San Diego sectors safer. In Arizona they are employing Operation SafeGuard and it is showing real results.

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The Los Angeles Times has an article up here which sheds further light on how border safety has been ramped up over the last 20 years. The article notes that the Federal Government spent:

"$206 million this year to bolster the campaign against illegal immigrants all along the border with Mexico. In Arizona, the project is called Operation Safeguard and in Texas and parts of New Mexico it is Operation Hold the Line."

NDN's own recent report on the current Administrations Border strategy, has released $600 million on border safety. Over the past ten years the U.S. has spent $90 billion dollars on border security. Which has actually created record low crime rates along the border. This has led some to call the Southwest Border region the safest place in America.

VIDEO: New 21st Century Border YouTube Featuring International Mayors, Administration Officials, and Border Experts

NDN/NPI was fortunate enough to participate in the Office of Congressman Silvestre Reyes' and The University of Texas at El Paso's (UTEP) eighth annual Border Security Conference, and the Southwest Border Mayors meeting both in El Paso Texas.

While there we were able to sit down with leaders from Mexico and the United States to discuss safety issues in the region, the critical importance of the geo-political relationship between the United States and Mexico, the growing economic power of exports and imports from Mexico, and the need to pass comprehensive immigration reform to foster the legal movement of people into and out of the country.

Below are a list of border leaders featured on the NDN/NPI 21st Century Border YouTube page. Each link below will take you to each individual interview playlist.  These playlists consist of the full interviews broken out into several different YouTube videos for a more digestible viewing experience.

Border Mayors Interviewed

Juan Carlos Escamilla, Mayor of San Luis, AZ
Madeleine Praino, Mayor of Vinton, TX
Ken Miyagishima, Mayor Of Las Cruces, NM
Hector Murgia, Mayor of Juarez, MX
Jose Rodriguez, State Senator, El Paso, TX
Michael Gomez, Mayor Of Douglas, AZ
Carlos Bustamonte. Mayor of Tijuana, MX
Andres Silva, Mayor Of Deming, NM

Administration Officials

Ron Kirk, United States Trade Rep
Thomas R. Delaney, Mission Director Mexico, USAID

Border Experts

Adam Salerno, Chamber Of Commerce
Nelson Balido, President, Border Trade Alliance
Paul Teeple, Director, AGanar, Partners For The Americas

VIDEO: Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano On New Deportation Guidlines

While touring Auburn University's Canine Detection Center in Alabama, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, talked to CBS 42 TV, about the recent change in Deportation Guidelines and the continued struggle over state passed immigration enforcement laws. The video is below:

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NDN Unveils 21st Century Border Initiative YouTube Page

For months, members of the 21st Century Border Initiative have been busy cultivating a network of stakeholders throughout the Southwest and capturing their thoughts about the state of the U.S. - Mexican border region. Today we're proud to announce the release of a 21st Century Border Initiative YouTube page, a great portal for hearing directly from those in leadership positions – Mayors, Sheriffs, businesspeople – about the extraordinary progress made along the border region in recent years.

Through a new and better strategy, more resources and greater cooperation with our Mexican partners, the border region is much safer today. Crime is down, illegal migration has slowed, seizures of illegal drugs, guns and bulk cash has soared, all while trade and legal border crossings have increased. Despite the very real challenge of the cartel violence, the US side of the border has seen great progress in recent years. The voices on our new site testify to the progress which has made, and the to the very real challenges which remain.

Our inaugural 21st Century Border Project event was held over a year ago, and featured CPB Commissioner Alan Bersin and the Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan discussing the merits of the United States and Mexico working together to create a true 21st century border, one where more good things happen – trade, legal migration – and fewer undesirable things - flows of illegal guns, drugs, people and bulk cash. The video can be seen here. The full transcript of the event can be read here.

Some of the people featured on the new site:

Mayor of Nogales Arturo R. Garino, AZ: Mayor Garino is a former City of Nogales Firefighter and a former Law Enforcement Officer both in the City and Santa Cruz County. He Served over three and a half years as Public Works Director for the City of Nogales under Mayor Cesar Rios, Mayor Marco Antonio Lopez Jr., Mayor Albert Kramer. He is currently the Mayor of Nogales Arizona. In his video Mayor Garino talks about the importance of how the Nogales border is safer then ever.

Vice Mayor of Tucson Richard Fimbres, AZ: Richard Fimbres is a lifelong resident of Ward 5 and Tucson, graduate of St. Ambrose and Tucson High Schools and a 20-year veteran of the Pima County sheriff's Department. He is a Vietnam-era veteran of the United States Army having served as a military policeman, patrol and narcotics dog handler. In his video the Vice Mayor Fimbres talks about the importance of Mexican tourism to Arizona's economy.

El Paso Mayor John F. Cook, TX: John Cook is Mayor of El Paso, Texas. Cook formerly served as president of the El Paso Health Care Facilities Financing Corporation and El Paso Housing Finance Corporation.In his video Mayor Cook discusses the importance of legal migration for the economies of border cities.

Sheriff Tony Estrada, AZ: Sheriff Tony Estrada was first sworn into office on January 1, 1993. Sheriff Estrada was born in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, immigrated with his family as an infant and grew up in Nogales, Arizona. In his video Sheriff Estrada talks about how the border in Arizona is safer then it has ever been.

Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik, AZ: Clarence W. Dupnik has served as the Sheriff of Pima County, Arizona, since his appointment in February 1980. County voters endorsed the choice nine months later by electing him to his first four-year term and ratified that decision by re-electing him six additional times. In his video Sheriff Dupnik talks about the dangers of the political rhetoric surrounding the border.

Sheriff Lupe Trevino, TX: Guadalupe "Lupe" Trevino is Sheriff of Hidalgo County, Texas. He currently serves on the State of Texas Homeland Security Office Mass Migration Committee and on the Executive Committee of the Texas Radio Interoperability Coalition. In his video Sheriff Trevino discusses how the border is much safer then political figures would have you believe.

Ruben Barrales, CEO SD Chamber of Commerce, CA: Ruben Barrales is President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. He served in the White House for five years as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush, where he was the President’s liaison to state and local elected officials. In his video Ruben talks about the importance of economic security along the southwest border.

In The Huffington Post: The GOP's Debt Ceiling Gambit Is Destructive To The Hispanic Community

Recently the Republican party has woken from its populist stupor and realized that it cannot be politically relevant in the long term without making major inroads with the Hispanic community. This is a good thing; the more representation and voting choices Hispanics have, the better the country is as a whole. Never mind that the GOP has long tried to pass laws which would harm this community; if they were serious about making inroads to this group they would think long and hard about what a default on our debt would do to Hispanics.

More then any other group in the country have been hit the hardest by this recent recession. This is a fact. The New York Times notes:

Hispanic families accounted for the largest single decline in wealth of any ethnic and racial group in the country during the recession, according to a study published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Given the deep hits that Hispanics took in the recession, any stoppage of benefits (an increasingly likely scenario given Tea Party resistance to pass the current Boehner plan which was going to cut $1.8 trillion from Medicare and Social Security to begin with) would be disastrous to this community.

This is especially the case with Social Security, Hector Sanchez of the Labor Council For Latin American Advancement notes:

Social Security is central to the economic security of all Latinos, young and old alike. For 75 years it has played a vital role in providing a safety net for the protection millions of retirees, disabled workers and aged widowers.

EPI's Daniel Costa puts it a different way:

A 2010 report by the AARP (PDF) detailed the percentage of Latinos 45 and older who were having trouble paying for certain basic needs, and identified those needs. As a result of the recession, 33 percent of Latinos in this age group reported having trouble paying their rent or mortgage, 35 percent had to cut back on medications, 35 percent stopped contributing to their 401(k)s, a whopping 56 percent had problems paying for gas, and grimly, 43 percent had problems paying for food and utilities.

As Republican members in the House look increasingly likely to take the fragile American economy to the precipice and perhaps beyond, one has to wonder with their resurgent interest in Hispanics as a voting block, how could they even think of defaulting on our debt.

Given how Hispanic families have already been hit hard by the recession, if the GOP were serious about courting this group, they would stop putting up misleading advertisements in Spanish. If they were serious about actually doing something help Hispanic families who are already struggling to make ends meet, they would stop wasting their time with anti-Hispanic legislation like the HALT Act, and they most certainly would not be willing to take our country to the brink of economic disaster.

HEARING: The Economic Imperative of Enacting Immigration Reform.

The Senate Judiciary Sub Committee on Immigration Refugees and Border Security will be holding a hearing tomorrow on the Economic Imperative of Enacting  Immigration Reform.

The New Policy Institute (NPI) released a report on the impact of immigration and comprehensive immigration reform on the wages of the American worker. NPI's report provides a much needed look at the intersection of America's economy and immigration system.

The report written by NPI Fellow and Former Under Secretary of Commerce Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, accomplishes five important things.

It gives an accurate portrait of America's immigrant Population, it dispels many misconceptions regarding undocumented immigrants in the country, it provides economic analysis on the impact of immigration on wages. it examines the wage impact of reforms to provide a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, finally  examines the positive economic impact of comprehensive immigration reform.

The full report can be read here, The Impact of Immigration and Immigration Reform on the Wages of American Workers.

Make sure to check out the hearing which will be webcast here at 10 AM.

The President's Balancing Act On Immigration Reform

In the midst of increasingly frantic debt limit negotiations, it is telling that President Barack Obama took the time to speak at the NCLR Conference. With the 2012 campaign season revving up, Obama’s willingness to take time out from the furious negotiations occurring on Capitol Hill to speak before a capacity crowd of Hispanic leaders shows that he understands exactly how important the Hispanic vote will be.

The stakes were high for the President’s speech. Secure Communities and the deportation of DREAM Act students have dulled some of the initial luster that the President had when he first took office. That is not to say that the President has not been deaf to these complaints. The President has advised the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to show greater discretion in what types of undocumented immigrants to deport. DHS has also created an internal working group within the agency to find ways to improve the many problems associated with Secure Communities.

Today, Obama talked talked up his accomplishments with placing Hispanics in his administration, the recent White House Hispanic Policy Day and the work he is doing for the country as a whole. He spoke of opportunity, the economy, the recession, tax relief, trade and the work facing his administration. He spoke of sacrifice, the debt limit, the economy, energy, the rich, the poor and everything in between. The crowd sat in deferential silence as he discussed the difference between his candidacy and his Presidency.

Only when he began to talk about immigration did the crowd come alive with a monstrous roar. The speech became one of the economic benefit of immigrants, one that sought to bridge the divide between what is and what should be for the immigrant population in the country. When talking about bypassing Congress to grant deferrals for immigrants, was met with raucous chants of “yes we can.”

The President held his own, taking the full brunt of the crowd and spoke frankly: “Keep the heat on me, keep the heat on the Democrats,” he told the crowd. ”But know this we are with you. And never forget who we need to move, Republicans.”

This, surprisingly was also met with applause. The speech went on predictably from there, ending with polite applause and the sporadic chanting of DREAM activists to stop the deportation of DREAMers.

This speech was no game-changer. The President has always (mostly) said the right things on immigration. The problem has always been the expectations of what the President, should do and what he can do. The tension of what people want from him and the reality of his office has bedeviled him for his entire Presidency. This remains true after his speech today. The President knows that the he cannot win without Hispanics coming out big for him. So yes, he has checked the NCLR box, he has shown his willingness to engage. But now he has a little under a year to deliver.

In Huffington Post: The Flow of Undocumented Migrants Entering The US Has Nearly Stopped But Not for the Reasons You May Think

Undocumented Migration into the United States has all but stopped, and not entirely for the reasons you may think. It is not just because the United States has put unprecedented levels of resources along the border, but, and this may come as a shock to some, mostly because Mexico's economy is improving.

One of the general arguments as to why there are so many undocumented immigrants in America is that Mexico is a developing nation and the lure of jobs is too hard for migrants from all over Latin America to resist.

None other than George Will, conservative writer made just this argument the other day. His full quote was, and this I believe is a fairly standard talking point for the GOP these days: "It's very different when you are the only developed nation in the world with a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation." Very broadly he was arguing that the lure of jobs has been the reason that immigrants have come to our country for generations.

George Will is a really smart guy, and his statement is partly correct, migrants have been coming to the U.S. to work for a long time, but he is dead wrong when he calls Mexico a developing nation.

According to Census data, Mexico is currently the United States' third largest trading partner. Last year the United States did more trade with Mexico then it did with Great Britain, France and Germany combined.

Additionally, according to prominent economist Robert Newell the per-capita gross domestic product and family income have each jumped more than 45 percent since 2000. Which is to say that Mexico's economy is doing better than it has in a long time, which ultimately has led to the decline in illegal crossings of migrants.

The common Republican refrain for why they cannot move forward on a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system is that the border must be secured to stop migrants from coming to America and stealing jobs from legal citizens. If illegal migration into the United States has nearly stopped, then this argument simply no longer holds.

Yet, the GOP continues to use the border and the jobs argument to not come to the table on broader immigration reforms. Majority Leader of the House John Boehner was recently asked about whether or not he would support administrative relief for DREAM Act students, he said: "We really can't deal with other issues until it (the border) is secure. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith is equally guilty of this, as he loves to say that the border must be secured to stop migrants from coming and taking American jobs.

There is just one problem with this conflation: Illegal migration to the United States has all but stopped in recent years. As Mexico's economy has improved, the willingness to pay large fees to cross the desert in 125 degree heat to work in an underground economy with no rights and doing back-breaking work for little pay has actually dropped. Who would have thought?

A recent New York Times article by Damien Cave shows that there is in fact: "A growing body of evidence suggests that a mix of developments -- expanding economic and educational opportunities, rising border crime and shrinking families -- are suppressing illegal traffic as much as economic slowdowns or immigrant crackdowns in the United States."

According to experts at Princeton's Mexican Migrant Project: "...research showed that interest in heading to the United States for the first time had fallen to its lowest level since at least the 1950s. "No one wants to hear it, but the flow has already stopped," Mr. Massey said, referring to illegal traffic. "For the first time in 60 years, the net traffic has gone to zero and is probably a little bit negative."

As it turns out, Mexico is not a failed state, the great American job magnet is no longer as lucrative as it once was, and the National Guard Troops and unprecedented numbers of Border Patrol agents along the border are actually acting as a deterrent to illegal migration along our borders.

One would think that the House GOP would be happy. When the Democrats where in power in Congress, literally the only immigration legislation the Republicans would play ball on was those that sent resources to secure the border. Which is to say that Democrats have done their part, the border is safer, and illegal migration has in fact dropped to next to nothing. If the House GOP wants to claim victory on this, all the better since maybe then we could get on with something other than enforcement only immigration legislation and hopefully lay to rest the idea that Mexico is a failed state and that the border is porous.

Cross Posted at the Huffington Post.

Southwest Border Task Force Member Francis "Pancho" Kinny on The Lack Drug Violence On The Border

Once again NDN has gone west, and we have been fortunate enough to be able to sit down with local law enforcement and elected officials to chat about their views along the border.

Next up in our series is Francis “Pancho” Kinney is Vice President for HNTB Federal. Kinney was previously DHS Deputy Director of International Affairs. Kinney is a Border Trade Alliance Board Member and Infrastructure Committee Chair.

Pancho gives an excellent account of how the border has changed from a historical perspective regarding the buildup of military and border patrol agents. This is an important context to view the southwest border because it points to the fact that as the increase of personnel along the border has increased there has been a drop in violence.

He also notes that in terms of violence in recent years, there actually has not been much of a change in the level of violence because border communities have actually been safe. He also noted that while there is a strong presence of Mexican cartels in the United States, they do not act violently as their main goal is to sell drugs.

On the subject of kidnappings, Pancho was quick to point out that there is a problem, but it is not against American citizens. Rather it is an issues of human and drug traffickers kidnapping migrants and holding them for ransom until their families pay to get them back.  This is a lucrative trade for human smugglers as undocumented immigrants often fear going to the authorities and are more vulnerable to these types of crimes.

The full video is below:

Southwest Border Task Force Member Ray Borane on Why There Is a Perception Of Violence Along The Border

Once again NDN has gone west, and we have been fortunate enough to again be able to sit down with local law enforcement and elected officials to chat about there views along the border. We have several videos and we will be putting them up daily so please stay tuned.

First up is Ray Borane who served as Mayor of Douglas, Ariz., a border community from 1996-2008. Borane was also an FBI Special Agent and served as a Policy Advisor to the Governor of Arizona on border and immigration issues.

Before you watch the video there are a couple of key points that Borane addressed which are worth highlighting:

1. Violence in border communities tend to be relatively small compared to other big cities. Mostly however the violence that does occur tends to have nothing to do with the border in an of itself. Which is to say when violence does occur it happens amongst American citizen's over mundane everyday things, and not say narco-trafficante related stuff.

2. Borane registered very real skepticism about violence further up in Arizona like Pinal County. Mostly because of the nature of the Mexican drug cartels. They absolutely do not want to get caught along their smuggling routes and Pinal county is far enough in land and away from the border that the Drug and Human smugglers generally have dispersed. Meaning that there is no need for them to travel in large groups which would produce the type of gun fights which the Sheriff of Pinal County suggests.

That is just a taste of what is in the video, so please check it out in full below:

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