Research Library

Fellows Joyce Beebe and Edward M. Emmett discuss the child care shortage in the U.S. and evaluate a variety of policy solutions.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne and the Center for the U.S. and Mexico's Tony Payan explore the complex relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and what their future might hold.

Young people in the U.S. face an unprecedented mental health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated rates of depression, anxiety and suicide among adolescents that were already at historically high levels before the pandemic. Since 2020, mental health-related emergency room visits have increased 31% among adolescents while suicide rates among teenagers increased 25%.

Child labor laws are failing migrant children. As children from Latin America migrate to the United States in record numbers, many are ending up in dangerous jobs that violate child labor legislation. What steps are needed to ensure that vulnerable migrant children are protected from exploitation?

In March 2023, four U.S. citizens were kidnapped at gunpoint in northern Mexico; two were found dead and two others were rescued following a manhunt. The incident quickly became an international crisis and renewed U.S. focus on violence south of the border. This conversation explores the binational relationship between the U.S. and Mexico and growing tensions regarding Mexico’s approach to clamping down on violence and crime. 

The pandemic spurred a rollercoaster of quick, subsequent economic events in three years that might normally occur across three decades: record unemployment, a brief recession, federal assistance, highest inflation since the 1980s, interest rate increases, and in 2023, concerns regarding a looming recession. Some U.S. consumers have dealt with the aftermath of this whiplash by shifting their spending and saving behaviors. Our experts discuss U.S. consumer trends since the pandemic — what’s stayed the same, new phenomena, and notable policy developments. 

As the tensions at the U.S.-Mexico the border continue, President Biden visited El Paso, Texas on January 8, 2023 to discuss his plan for clamping down on illegal immigration. We discuss the state of U.S. border policy, President Biden’s latest plans, and how the U.S. can mitigate the immigration crisis.