hey everybody we are back with another episode of ytics you know we were uh on the subject of Mexico and Texas last week and we just couldn't get enough and so we're back at it well yeah there's a lot going on you know except this time you didn't bring the cesa or the tacos or the like we had last we're a little a little tight on time so I'm not going to break out the survey so so we are at the uh Bush Institute did I get that right Bush Center isn't it Bush Institute we'll send you the boiler p
late but you I should asked that before we started the this is the bush Institute where the policy arm of George W Bush Presidential Center glad we got all of it in there I like that well let's let's just dive into it here because we we have um two guests with us and and one of them you may remember from previous episodes we have Laura Collins here she is the director of the Bush Institute SMU economic growth initiative at the George W bush Institute yes gotta that was a mouthful speaking of tha
t making sure I have it right we also have Jennifer aperti right a the deputy director of the Texas Mexico Center at SMU Southern Methodist Unity University uh here in Dallas uh and that name is um Italian yes okay was that proper Italian that I did there I I tried to raise my fingers just right when I said so it's a py for the rest of us a p p e r TI you're the director of the Texas Mexico Center at SMU right yes gotcha all right well oh I said Deputy I'm sorry iot I'm sorry that's for the my o
ther CS it's confusing you're also deputy director of the Tower Center wow I knew that was in there somewhere everybody's got a long title here yeah ours are pretty simple yeah very simple we EnV you that question exactly we ask questions so so we're back on the topic of Mexico 2024 this is uh you know the border is the Boogeyman as far as the Republican party today is concerned and and they've done a really good job framing this issue to get the electorate behind them at least the uh Republican
primary voters behind them here's what I've been curious about though and Jennifer we'll start with you because prior to joining you you spent what a decade as as a diplomat for the Mexican Government worked in Ur for the uh the embassy of Mexico and um you have a lot of experience on that so let's start with you I'm curious what does what do what do Mexicans think about what's happening north of the Border all the hot air that's going on up here do they do they look at us and roll their eyes a
re they concerned about anything going on up here well not a simple question I would say when you ask Americans what they think about Mexican politics oh you're going to get a diversity of opinions I would argue the same thing around Mexicans also have very uh different opinions if and it's I think it's a big if if they're paying attention because right now Mexico is also preparing for a very big election on June the 1st so a lot of Mexicans right now are mostly spending their attention on Mexic
an politics however uh I recently had the chance to speak with business people and I would say they are a big part of of the US Mexico relationship like was D yes exactly and that he's going be doing this whole episode by the way he'll be dropping this anytime I can get an accent right I'm going to interrupt to do that and and and you have family down that way so you were down there and you're speaking with Business Leaders and this was supposed to be about business it was and one of the things
that came up of course was well how is business going to look after uh the election in the US oddly enough despite what rhetoric might be people are not really worried about who whoever wins in the US will probably continue the great economic relationship both countries have so most of the concerns are actually what I mentioned in terms of rhetoric the image of Mexico and Mexicans in the US but interestingly I think the economic relationship has been working so well that despite Politics on both
sides of the Border everybody is reassured that that will continue you going no matter who or what I wonder if there's like real strong feelings though about some of the initiatives that have been undertaken by Texas specifically where You' got razor wire along the border you've got you know buoys floating in the middle of the Border there uh you've got some real militarization going on along the border to try to stop the flow of migrants are people talking about that down there they're talking
about it a lot here or maybe it's just because we've been so bombarded with ads so I would say most of the people in Mexico who are paying a lot of attention to that are the Border communities and I would add a different element to it this is very new for the Mexican communities along the border something that here in the US we've seen throughout many years due to immigrants coming in through the border for many years now uh ever since the pandemic when a lot of them have now been staying on th
e Mexican side the first communities who received the impact of that were Mexican border communities cities like Matamoros Rosa even further along out of Texas but all throughout the Border let's not forget that the largest border between the US and Mexico is in Texas so yeah a lot of the Mexican cities on the other side of uh of our of our border are the first ones feeling the impact they were not used to receiving people they might have seen them for many years stay there for a while trying to
cross whether people were successful in doing so were deported to their origin countries was a different story but it didn't really affect their everyday lives now we've got people waiting on those cities for very long periods of time this is not something that those cities were used to this is completely new for those communities and they are the ones mostly focusing on okay what's going to happen in the US how is that going to impact our communities here well yeah Laura I get I have plenty of
questions for you but but you just raised another point there so the these Mexican border towns are are feeling the impact now of the US border policies is that changing any any political views of the folks in these towns are they saying you know forget the wall here guys or the madoris or you know we're tied to you guys economically but you know something needs to happen here something needs to give definitely one of the things that we're noticing and in fact our researchers are working on thi
s right now how can they As Cities do something about it because just like in the US in Mexico anything having to do with immigration that's a federal mandate so it should be the federal government taking care of this uh recently Mexico's government decided they were going to cut the funding for Mexico's national uh Institute for migration which is the entity in charge of funding anything related to immigration so these communities became very worried like if we already have something that we're
not used to that's big for us and that we as a city don't know how to handle with less funding available than before how are we going to do it so a lot of cities are starting to reach out ask questions to NOS to cities across the border to state governments what can we do together and this is why at the center we firmly believe that we need more us Mexico cooperation but if it's not happening happening at the federal level maybe we can get it started at local levels given the experience a lot o
f Texans cities have had throughout decades maybe there's some good shared practices they can share with their Mexican counterparts that might be helpful I wonder how much uh people on the other side of the Border might have been watching uh the the recent uh politics here in the US around immigration as we all know uh the Senate you know had com had hammered out this big compromise Republicans and Democrats really working hard on this thing and they thought okay we've got a big deal here and th
en it just died in the house and you know it's been widely reported that former president Trump wants to run on the immigration issue and persuaded the house to shut that thing down uh Laura does this ever get fixed if you know it seems like we've always got another election in front of us and this has become a political football can this ever be fixed we've heard about this path to citizenship thing for eons now yeah I I think it's interesting first I want to say though that the fact that Mexic
o cut their migration budget is actually really scary because as you know they already had a very small budget for humanitarian resettlement and so as a receiving country now they take Asylum Seekers as well I mean just the fact that overall immigration is cut let alone that humanitarian budget really scary um and your point about crossb and the NOS you know we have such a great tradition here um of Migrant shelters and and faith-based organizations at the border really working hard to welcome f
olks because they've had to right the US government we process people we release them uh we detain them we don't welcome them that's not what the US government does and so it's interesting to see that be um a new sort of dynamic in Mexico and um you know it's those are the those are the organizations that do such a great job I mean Annunciation house is one example they've been in the news a lot lately especially in the last in last week um in El Paso they've been there for 48 years welcoming mi
grants you know they work closely with the US government when migrants are released from custody they've done this across multiple administ ations and right now they're in some um legal hot water um with the Attorney General's office we'll see what happens with that case I know there was a hearing today it' be really sad to see uh organizations like theirs not able to exist anymore because we know they do such a good part of the welcoming and and you know they're an example I think that we can l
ook to as as a group of people that have always worked no matter who's in power in the United States no matter what the immigration policies look like they find a way to make it work they find a way to serve people um they find a way to adapt to What policies look like and they've seen the way that immigration policy has changed over the last 50 years well yeah let's lay that out here the the Attorney General in Texas sued anunciation house and essentially said hey you're you're doing you know s
erving undocumented undocumented immigrants and you shouldn't be doing it uh is kind of the 30,000 foot view here there are a lot of those NOS these non-governmental organizations up and down the Rio Grand doing the exact same thing and these people have been there for a half century yeah this is going to have a chilling effect yeah what is the effect is it a chilling effect or are these churches Catholic Charities other they're mostly they're faith-based organizations mostly some of them are no
t and um you know what they provide is you know these are the migrants that they primarily serve at least according to what we've known from what they what they say is they serve migrants who have been processed and detained by us authorities and released as people have a notice to appear they have a court date they're sent on their way and they're basically pointed in the direction of the bus station and said go for it um so this is an organization that takes them in gives them a place to sleep
um gives them a meal helps them find their bus um pretty basic humanitarian relief if you don't have organizations in the private sector doing that then you end up with people sleeping on the streets until they can find their way to their next destination um sometimes cities take on that burden and and try to shelter them we've seen what happens when you have a city like New York city that has a mandate to house these people so um they serve an incredibly important role not just in helping migr
ants but in helping the communities that they're already living in and serving in because they make that process work a little bit better well the fact that they've been sued though doesn't that give us an idea when we look at the gauge of of immigration policy that we've moved uh quite clearly you know I don't know they've been there for a long time they've been there for a long time um I I feel like it's the temperature on the conversation is really hot right now in a way that you know if you'
d asked me a few years ago I would have said oh no we've had horrible R rhetoric about immigrants for decades in the United States right it's never you know you look at the really old comics and stuff from the the quota years when they didn't really want Eastern European immigrants in the United States and I could have told you then that that was way worse and I'm not sure that's true anymore because we're at the point now where it's not just the rhetoric um so little immigration policy gets don
e in Congress anymore that now immigration policy is primarily made in the courts because Congress doesn't really do anything and then the executive branch tries to act within what they have because the system needs to work right now the legal immigration system doesn't work so when that doesn't work executive branch tries to act sometimes they act in a more Progressive manner sometimes they act in a more anti-immigrant manner either way someone's there to challenge it so immigration policy is m
ade primarily in the courts it's been the way from the last five plus years um it's a horrible way to make immigration policy nobody wins um and it creates this backlash the agency Personnel are constantly dealing with changing rules um the migrants are constantly dealing with changing rules Mexico is constantly dealing with changing rules the only winners are the smuggling organizations because they can then turn around and go well you know under title 42 for example which we've talked about be
fore when we weren't going to take you in for Asylum as the United States we would just dump you back in Mexico they said okay well we'll give you a 3:1 deal right or a 4 to1 deal we'll keep trying to cross you for a fee um until you can successfully get across and um so those smuggling organizations are really entrepreneurial and smart they know what the loopholes are and they find a way to exploit them and if we had actual legislative change on immigration policy uh we'd see less of that it it
was close and we saw uh the the senator from Republican senator from Oklahoma James Langford negotiating negotiating on behalf of Republicans and then he got you know rolled over by the bus the GOP bus on this it kind of surprised me I didn't expect that to happen I'm just curious what what you thought about that what what happened with the bipartisan deal and secondly um if if that won't happen we already see Biden moving to the right on this issue in an election year can anything happen when
it comes to immigration yeah so I think the thing that was kind of interesting to me about the Border supplemental is um I question the political wisdom from multiple people to decide to pair the foreign assistance with the Border piece yeah the Ukraine and Israeli Aid with yeah um both of those are pretty volatile topics I think that there was a conventional wisdom that if you paired them you know it would be so important to get that funding across for Ukraine and their fight against Russia tha
t that that would just it would force people to be a little bit more reasonable on a border vote and that's not what happened um and I think that the the Senators that worked on that were very sincere in their efforts and they worked really hard on it it was not a perfect compromise there were policy elements of it that I would not have supported um there were policy elements of it that I did support um but it was a good start and it was a really interesting framework and a I would say even a ne
w paradigm you know in the past it was always border security for relief for the undocumented and this wasn't this was border policy and also some changes on legal immigration that would have done a few tweaks on expanding the number of people who could come here on green cards and that's a really positive way to look at that we know the legal immigration side has to work for the Border Side to work they go together um the house had already passed something that they likeed better that was just
border which I in my personal opinion that's not good policy that wouldn't have worked um and they dug in their positions so that's really where that sits and you know until they decide that it's worth it to them to have a functioning legal immigration system we're going to continue to see C it's not worth it though because they can campaign on it forever I I mean you know I believe that public servants should be doing things for uh the good of the country right um and the tension I think for so
me of these folks is that they may not have decided to run because they care a lot about immigration policy they may care a lot about tax policy or Healthcare policy or something else and so taking a tough vote on something that they don't care as much about um puts them in a tough position but ultimately we need an immigration system that benefits the United States uh that works to support our 21st century economy ensures our future prosperity and vitality and so hopefully that eventually wins
out I think this just shows us again though that things have certainly moved uh from what we were dealing with even just a handful of years ago because for a long time you know the the debate was about dreamers and about path to citizenship talk about this is even 20 years we had bipartisan legislation on dreamers that just never could get through Congress and this was about this was about beefing up border security I mean with none of that stuff and the money that was in the Border supplemental
piece let alone the the the package deal about the changes to Le to the law but just the money was needed just just to make current law function at a bare minimum and that doesn't exist right now and can't even get that through right do you roll your eyes when you watch this stuff all the time I mean I think though that you know yes there are definitely times when I roll my eyes but I also you can't laugh too much at it because it's so serious it's a legitimate issue you know and it has to get
done and and I also have to have some optimism if I don't have optimism about it then it's impossible to do this job right because you just see things good pieces of legislation fail on a frequent basis Jenny are you optimistic I am and and getting back to the what can we do I'm not optimistic about the situation now I'm optimistic about what could be done and and this is where I think we could also get a little bit creative and I'm going to go back to uh this part about our partners in Mexico a
nd the border and Border communities time is of the essence and you you just asked the question what can we do I think a lot of people on different sectors are asking themselves the same question if we don't see something over here on the political Arenas move on either side of the Border people are just going to move on uh this is why we've seen States take certain actions and even like I mentioned in Mexico we're seeing local communities take action so I'm not saying that that is ideal but I t
hink there might be ways there to do things and like I said uh I really believe in US Mexico cooperation that that I will always believe that you can do something along those lines that might be helpful it's not going to solve everything but if we can at least move a couple of steps forward that's better than nothing and so right now because we are seeing a huge amount of people on our shared border let's not forget the Border belongs to two countries this is our shared border I feel that someti
mes both countries take a stand on well the Border this and oh the border that we kind of forget it's a shared border maybe we should start talking about a shared management of the border that might be more helpful than each country trying to come up and do things their own way uh if we I think if we start by supporting those local communities along the Texas border that are seeing an influx of people I think if we start with shared practices that might lead us to say okay maybe we can City by C
ity manage somewhat better the influx of people while we decide Countrywide what to do about it we we have the international treaty with with the water and the Rio Grand but but what would a a shared management of of a border look like for starters I would argue leave it at technical levels through the state department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I think you have excellent bodies of qualified people that might be able to engage in dialogue engage with local communities and have like a a
discussion group or a work group take the politics out of the Border wow you're very optimistic Jenny you're very optimistic we have to be like's already take the politics out of the border right because it's they live it every day ex but I'm also curious you know at what point does does the politics at least in the US impact the wallets of people in the US because we love to bad mou the Border build the wall keep you know Mexicans out and and you know people coming up here from Venezuela and di
fferent different places like that at some point I worry that the the politics is is going to to to sour business are you concerned about that I love that you mentioned yes we talk about the Border as if it's only about one issue but the border is about so many issues economics plays a huge part and just we just to mention you know we love eating fresh produce right well 60% of the produce that comes into the US comes from Mexico through the bridge and far Texas so when we talk about 60% from in
Far Texas yeah of all the fruits and veggies that come into the US there's another how many lanes are at that bridge I can't remember at the top of my head but it it is one of the most efficient ones in terms of produce and handling Frozen it's amazing you have other Bridges along the entire border but number one for that is here in Texas so even when we're thinking well closing borders oh so that means that from one day to the other we have the potential of not receiving 60% of the produce we
buy every day at the grocery store and that stuff can rot exactly and this this these are the dimensions of things that sometimes we don't measure when we think about oh closing Borders or borders are not only about people they're about infrastructure they are about like you mentioned the economy we've heard that rhetoric though closing the Border in this election ction season and uh no avocados no tomatoes no I mean you're going to and no trade do we really want to impact business because over
60% of uh trade between the US and Mexico happens in Texas in the port of Laredo huge do we really also want to impact all of the businesses throughout the country I don't know it's it's the automotive supply chain too right if you have an americanmade car is a supply chain between the US Canada and Mexico and if you close the border you're imperiling that supply chain and yeah like this let's explore this just for a moment here because people talk about it you hear it a lot uh in quick politica
l sound bites what would it physically mean to close a border for a month let's say what what would that H what would happen to me in Texas here okay for starters you've been waiting talk this is going to be such an ugly picture let's say for a month 30 days border closed like like some politicians want we'll start with what I believe is basic which is food we all get hungry at one point we've got to eat uh very soon you'd start saying oh I can't find Tomatoes here anymore oh there's no more ber
ries I've got to go to a different Supermarket you start seeing less and less of the things you need to eat not only in your Supermarket for your home but then that means also you're impacting all the restaurants hey no we're out of all these dishes cuz we can't find you know all the ingredients to produce this with you start affecting an industry like the restaurant industry which here in Dallas for example is so important for our local economy well I'm guessing that if you don't have customers
cuz you know you can't Supply them with what you sell you're going to have to you know maybe start telling some people well I can't pay you this month so I'm sorry I'm going to have to let you go it all spirals I'm I'm only touching right now produce as you see but like Laura mentioned what happens when we are talking about building cell phones computers which is something that crosses the Border uh multiple times and it it really is part of what Texas builds together as part of the US with Mex
ico um tech industry is already going to start saying wait I I'm missing some of the parts that needed to come through what's happening so you're impacting the tech industry um cars are huge exactly hug you thought it was it got crazy expensive in the pandemic imagine shutting all of that down how bad exactly how bad it could could get after so life would become even more expensive and you would have less options as a consumer for starters not to mention I guess the Housing Industry the hospital
ity industry the restaurant industry the the labor a lot of times that runs those I mean imagine that I mean so I I actually think you can't actually shut the border down um because in a in a certain way people are still going to try to find their way in right um and so the it's it's rhetoric when they say shut the border down it May mean that they don't want to take any Asylum Seekers that just means that when we catch people we're going to put them in deportation proceedings and then try to re
turn them to their home countries which is dependent upon cooperation from the Home Country right um our ability to turn people away and leave them in Mexico and wait for their case there is dependent upon Mexico's Hospitality if they don't want to do it we can't turn them away so it's a lot of Bluster it's a lot of Bluster um there there is a real risk that we would lose the ability um depending on or the next Administration to be a welcoming humanitarian country and a refuge for people fleeing
violence and persecution if they change the Asylum laws um but the the idea that suddenly if they decide to shut the border down no one would cross I think is foolish Jen you mentioned uh June 1st we've got a big election coming up in Mexico for the next president uh of Mexico we're going to have a woman president in Mexico are we not sure exactly so Mexico is going to beat the US to that yes um so first of all there's I mean who knows who knows but yeah uh there's that big you never know I I g
uess uh but that's the one of the big Dynamics the other though is I'm curious just you we know that immigration is huge in this election here in the US we know that the border is huge in this uh election is this something that plays that big in Mexico not as much okay not as much because Mexico is right now focusing a lot on its domestic issues and in terms of of what both majority or or the two main candidates are are presenting uh but it's not such a big topic as it is in the US because of th
e way immigration has been historically in Mexico up until very recently Mexico used to be primarily a country that sent immigrants abroad and for the longest time it stayed that way so throughout the different mexic meic administrations uh the country built systems in which to better communicate with with Mexicans abroad or you know try to um generate communication between communities who expelled a lot of immigrants and trying to you know at some point facilitate maybe people coming back or or
you know how do we focus on remittances which are such a huge part of Mexico back home yeah so that had been the traditional pattern up until uh the late I would say maybe 2015 we started to see maybe not so many Mexicans come to the US as in many previous years 2020 was definitely a year where things started to change for Mexico now because it all started with the pandemic okay for for uh health reasons people are going to wait on the Mexican side that's how we started with where we are today
um and it's been that way for a couple of years now but in a very short period of time Mexico has transitioned from being a prim primarily a country that sends immigrants abroad versus one that's now receiving them from South Point South not only Central America we are starting to see people arrive at the Mexican border from places like China that is unheard of in Mexico uh at least along the border we lots of Africans exactly there's a Muslim focused um shelter in Tijana I believe because of th
e number of Muslim immigrants that are coming to the Border well what's the reaction then politically so that's the thing the first people starting to become aware and say wait we we have changing conditions we don't know what to do about them are the Border communities who are receiving them but I don't think uh this has become much of a topic in the rest of Mex Mexico yet as it has become in the Border communities which is why it's not going to play the same role as in the Mexican election as
it will in the US election however who knows what will happen in the upcoming Mexican election how crucial is it for Mexico to enforce immigration though it can really change the dynamic of what of how many people I guess come north of the Border there can't it it's complex to say really complicated because yes for starters that would be if we only stick to the topic of immigration right but when you're Asylum though is a different yeah when you're dealing in a bilateral relationship there's oth
er topics that you know come into play and sometimes if you don't have a card on this but you do have a card here you're going to try to leverage that so I've heard somebody um an expert say that Mexico will either help us on immigration or drugs but not both and I think that's probably a bit of an absolute but there is a limit even as good a relationship as we have with Mexico and as close as we are economically there's a limit to how much they'll cooperate with us go back to no why why is it t
his is a good conversation why is that though I wonder just hey Mexico will help on one thing maybe not the other I mean it's just I think a lot of it depends on the relationship between the administrations and also you know Mexico I think wants to make sure it has it own identity right I mean they're they're an independent country too and they're not going to just take direction from the United States and they also take issue with us on you know we have a problem on the border of blaming Mexico
for drugs coming across they blame us for guns coming across people forget that yeah um let's get back to the election real quick one more thing on that uh pulling on that thread a little bit more what is the leverage uh that Mexico gains by saying well you want us to cooperate on this then The Leverage there going back to rhetoric and also what you just mentioned right there's been sometimes a sense in Mexico that oh you we're supposed to be partners we're all members of usmca sometimes we fee
l like a lesser partner in this relationship even though we you know are trying to comply with a lot of the rules as best as we can even though we you know try and you know send our best pro produce for example and and you know try and do all these things but sometimes you know when we get told you're not cooperating cuz you know there's so many drugs flowing up north wait a second it turns out that you're telling me all these to-dos but but I'm not seeing anything in return and one of the thing
s that and it's your addictions by the way that are causing the drugs to come up north yeah it's tied to violence so one of the things that this President Administration took very seriously was well guess what I've been asking you for a very long time help me not to get weapons illegally into this country but I'm not seeing anything in return so why don't we first work on you know some of these issues then we'll work later on these so it becomes a matter of priorities and that's the thing two co
untries might have different priorities how do you bring them towards something that they can both work on um and that's where Frameworks that already exist like usmca are so important because we already have that existing relationship and so that's one way that we know that we can work well together it's proven and we know we work well with Canada in that too but it's not perfect and it's never perfect because everybody has their own priorities Laura it sounds like you all need to organize a bi
g Summit here between some leaders maybe here at the Bush Presidential Center uh you know uh we're always happy to convene folks as as we can um but I'm not going to make any promises I don't know that anyone would answer my invitation if it came from me so um but ons now on this podcast they're going to call me exactly um you know we've heard about the guns being traced back I'll stay on the guns just for a moment the guns being traced back from you know crimes and somewhere in Mexico back to p
laces in the US does the US do anything to try to stop guns I mean I've been to the Border many times and I I mean they you know they weigh people through you push a button pay a quarter or whatever it is and and go on through are we doing anything so I can't comment as to what we actually do um because my only experience with this is in a past job I had to monitor the hearings for the house oversight committee uh related to um some programs some operations that were supposed to catch gun Smuggl
ers so I know we do some things I don't know specifically what we do and I've tried really hard not to pay attention to that because I did not enjoy watching those hearings it was it was um not um my favorite use of time these but but these uh cartels are very well armed and these are American Arms in many cases no yes and there's a reason for that in Mexico people unless it's maybe a hunting rifle they have to go through very specific permits you even have to get it from the military it's not e
asy yeah uh people cannot access weapons easily at all so the fact that they are so well-armed sometimes with weapons that the military in Mexico hasn't even had access to yet tells you that they're getting them illegally here in the US so this is why The Mexican government uh decided you know we're going to file a civil lawsuit uh for damages against us gun manufacturers it's the manufacturers cuz in that sense like we do not want to even think about telling people what to do in their own count
ry we we just want to say hey there and it's also they didn't do this for all gun manufacturers they've been tracing oh look there's a pattern here so it's certain gun manufacturers that they filed this law stopping certain big buyers from turning around and dumping those guns in Mexico but this just goes back to say this is a priority in Mexico and for example if if this is the focus they're going to do that versus maybe say oh let's see what we can do at the southern border with Central Americ
a in terms of immigration so it's terms of priorities here's the last question for both of you guys uh and let's back to the the the female who's going to be elected as the next Mexican president the mayor of Mexico City Claudia Shin bomb and I think a senator name is it Zid Gales Galvez um what how does that change anything I know both of these women stand for different different things but as far as cooperation with us goes do you expect any changes at all Laura start with you I mean that's so
dependent and I I know ad I have not followed very much either of these candidates so much of this depends on the willingness of not just the Mexican president but the United States president to prioritize that relationship and um I know that um you know I was in college during the Bush Administration I do know though that that was a priority for the Bush Administration was that relationship and I believe I think it was viente Fox was the first state visit um of the Bush Administration so that
it matters a lot whether the US wants to prioritize it obviously Mexico has to as well uh I would say even though because recently Mexican law change they cannot uh speak to what each of their plans are until a certain point in time so I think right now as the campaigning will go they will now be able to tell more about what what each of their plans are so so far I don't have a clear indication but again listening to business people they're so aware in Mexico about the importance of the economic
relationship uh and yes since now Mexico is the US the US's main trading partner I think it would be hard for either of them if they did not want to to continue us cooperation they might not be interested at a personal I don't know this but even if one of them or both of them were not so interested the conditions in the country are such that they're going to have to address how do we further cooperate with the US do the political ads there get as nasty as they do here ah political ads are the s
ame I think Ines maybe a shorter time period given the restrictions on what you can say yeah but maybe we ought to think about that here right we'll never do that too much money to be made right uh I have a last question for you all uh as well but they're different questions for each uh Laura I'll start with you you all put out this blueprint uh to elected leaders in this country saying here's how you can fix the immigration system and you gave all of these different big priorities um you know o
bviously uh the Republican party has changed tremendously from when George W Bush was president uh I'm curious when you all put stuff like this out do you hear from Republicans from from elected leaders or party officials do you hear from Democrats do have you heard from anybody on this we definitely hear from policy makers and we hear from people on both sides of the aisle and the reason for that is um while we are nonpartisan and we have we definitely have a perspective and the man whose name
on the door obviously you know drives that um everyone is familiar with what President Bush and Mrs Bush stood for when they were in office on immigration um it's a values driven and principles driven pers perspective uh we have not changed um given political reality we Chang based on what the facts on the ground are right so when migration changes our recommendations change and because of that we have a credibility so people who really want Solutions whether you're a Democrat or Republican have
reached out um it doesn't mean that it's going to be a priority for them it doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to implement it um but they're willing to have a conversation do you hear people agree sometimes yeah do you hear people vehemently disagree age yes and I disagree back yeah do you yeah absolutely I'm not afraid to tell people when I think that they're wrong and it's it's you know it's not personal right it's a matter of policy and and I've and I have said to to policy makers
before you know I don't think the policy that you are advocating for will actually help you achieve your goal if your goal is what you state it is I think that you can work towards it a different way and here's what I would propose um and I've also told them when I think their facts are wrong and I think that's important too sometimes people rely on facts facts matter uh it's good to know there's spirited debate though because that's what it takes in a democracy to actually get to some solutions
instead of just shutting each other out um my last one for you Jen is you know we touched on this just a little bit before we started I always have a tendency you know Whitley is always like setting up for the podcast plugging in the microphones doing all the heavy lifting with Daryl and I'm sitting here just like shooting the breeze with whoever we're going to be speaking with and the best stuff comes out then we need to do a pre- podcast podcast um and you mentioned something and it just stic
ks out in my mind we hear over and over again about people in this country angry angry about all of these people coming in through that southern border and we can't even track them anymore and then they overstay their visas here and you know you know we had to get them out of this country uh you hear some similar things in Mexico about Americans this is good this is good and and I'll preface this by saying this came about because I was telling another one of my LW wallet stories which happened i
n San Miguel de aende and I found out when I got to WAN I'd left my wallet and lo and behold somebody called my employer because they saw my business card in there and they gave me my wallet back full of cash by the way and it was a Canadian couple living in San Miguel de aende it is a huge thing for Americans and Canadians to live in Mexico but some of them are staying Beyond there welcome too well yes we now have around uh 2 million Americans living in Mexico um illegally fun fact uh almost ha
lf of them overstay their Visas so but you know what I don't think that seen so so much as a problem in Mexico I think people are very aware that you know they're contributing to the community and but that happens here too though Mexicans who who come here and are working in many cases paying taxes Etc so that's the same why is it a different perception so here's here's where where we go back to the changing conditions you're are now starting to hear some people along the Mexican border say oh w
ell you know I don't know all these immigrants I'm not sure like I don't know if we want to employ them or not it's hum I think it's it's human human nature part of this I don't know I don't know this situation this culture this factor and this is how I externalize it um but I think that's why I go back I think it's important dialogue matters shared experiences matter and I think that's how we have a better chance of working towards something Outsiders are looked at though with this skeptical ey
e not just in the US and in Mexico this happens all over the world where you're seeing big migration patterns you know Germany Italy France all of these same places are you know being royed by this same conversation I think that when you look across multiple face there's a similarity of you know there's a message to welcome the stranger and that's because we need a lot of faiths are about overcoming the sort of worst impulses of humanity and so that's that's a common threat and that has been for
a long time and you know differences I think we're trained um to feel that differences are a danger to us and and they really do enrich us and so that's one of the things that we think is so important about immigration and it's it's going to anytime a country becomes a receiving country or even a Transit country it's going to be the sort of thing that um upsets Folks at least until they kind of get used to the idea um if they see that integration and assimilation are working which we know they
work really well in the United States um those are things that really help and so getting the community involved and making sure people are welcomed and adjusted um those are those are good things to do and um a way the private sector really works well well Mexico is one of the best places on Earth uh and so I get why all of those Americans are there illegally overstaying those visas I've thought about it you don't hear that story though it's great you you don't and it's happening in reverse it
is and with with the guns going going across too you know we hear about the drugs coming from Mexico we don't know who's coming across the border same things you know they're saying about the US which which I find fascinating well I lied to y'all my last question turned into four each and I also lied we more to say too so you know yeah that's true it's y'all's fault right and I also lied to y'all in telling you that we would uh get you out if you're on time uh We've overstate our welcome it turn
s out too Laura Collins thanks so much and Jennifer Aerie so we appreciate the it's a we appreciate the Insight it's fascinating to to to to learn this from from people who study the policy and the People South of the Border so thank you guys thank you thank you you're welcome back anytime
Comments
So uplifting!
Great discussion!
After looking around my town in north central Texas, she appears to be a PERFECT match.