New Program to Examine Border Issues

A new program funded primarily by the Houston Endowment Inc. at Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy will focus on immigration and other sensitive and critical issues along the U.S.–Mexico border.

The U.S.–Mexico Border Project will define problems, organize scholarly task forces to conduct research, formulate proposals, and engage politicians at the highest levels of government in the United States and Mexico. Eduardo Elizondo will serve as program coordinator.

“Border issues include drug trafficking and security as well as immigration, so the policy issues are acutely relevant not just to Houston and Texas but the rest of the nation as well,” says Edward Djerejian, director of the Baker Institute. “The integrated overview of the border region that we are planning should help address problems that are currently the source of serious tensions between two close neighbors. Ultimately, the program will attempt nothing less than to reduce tensions, improve quality of life, and establish a working partnership between two great nations.”

Issues on the agenda include:

• Immigration, both legal and illegal, and its impact on the United States’s wage structure, labor market, public school systems, public hospital systems, private medical facilities, and political clout
• Homeland security, including the screening for potential terrorists and weapons
• Drug trafficking
• The environment, including air pollution in the United States that originates from agricultural fires in Central Mexico, and limited water supply for agricultural, industrial, and household use

Elizondo will be responsible for organizing the task forces and planning a future conference at the Baker Institute on border issues. He will visit Mexico to meet potential program participants and talk with Mexicans who live and work on the border to expand the program’s perspective and encourage grassroots involvement.

—B. J. Almond