Research Library

In June 2023, the international boundary treaty governing the U.S.-Mexico border came under attack from Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lonestar. In a new research paper, nonresident scholars Stephen Mumme and Regina M. Buono outline the treaty’s history and examine key issues — advising on merits of recent challenges and long-term implications for the binational relationship between the United States and Mexico.

This report takes a deep dive into how expanding the scope of the nonimmigrant TN Visa — available only to Mexican and Canadian citizens — could help solve the U.S. labor shortage. In a political climate where full-scale immigration reform seems impossible, more temporary work visas can help bridge the labor gap.

This research paper profiles the current state of water management along the U.S.-Mexico border and examines the prospects for binational cooperation in confronting two main challenges — rising water demand and the persistent, long-term diminishment of the region's reliable riparian water supply.

A 1944 U.S.-Mexico water treaty still in effect is one of the world’s finest examples of binational cooperation in managing shared transboundary water resources. The author explains why, concluding that such an agreement could not be reached in today's political climate.

NAFTA has neither been the enormous success that its supporters believe, nor the disaster that its detractors claim. Renegotiating NAFTA — or even threatening to repeal it — is not a high-stakes proposition. The treaty simply does not possess the leverage to deliver a major boost or setback to the U.S. manufacturing sector. 

Authors Tony Payan and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera lay out how Mexico must anticipate and resolve potential problems in organized crime, corruption and natural resource allocation priorities in order to successfully implement its energy reforms.

Mexico Center director Tony Payan considers whether citizens and the government should together combat organized crime in Mexico.

Using a public health approach to study drug-related murders on the U.S.-Mexico border, the authors conclude the region is experiencing a "violence epidemic."

Is there an immigration crisis? Considering recent apprehensions of unauthorized immigrants in the context of what has happened over the last 10 years, the data are inconsistent with an immigration crisis — at least a generalized immigration crisis.