Research Library

Among the U.S. citizens migrating to Mexico in recent years are an unknown number of Americans who married Mexican citizens and were co-deported or departed voluntarily with their undocumented spouses, the authors report. Without improved consular services and a diaspora policy that anticipates the likely return of these Americans in the future, the authors worry that the United States risks re-inheriting a sizable U.S. population that may well require critical government services to reintegrate after a prolonged period abroad.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s investment policies, which aim to return Mexico to the protectionist, state-led policies of the 1960s and 1970s, seem almost certain to stagnate the country’s economy.

The energy policies of the United States and Mexico are at a crossroads, writes nonresident scholar Isidro Morales. In this report, he explains that the future direction of energy in both nations depends on how global energy markets adjust to the latest shock to the system — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The author proposes a model that explains how stressors such as constant uncertainty and legal vulnerability can affect the mental health of undocumented immigrants — and how, paradoxically, they can also make migrant communities more resilient. Learn more in Current Opinion in Psychology.

The UK recently announced that it will pursue commercial arrangements with up to 20 individual U.S. states, beginning with Texas. In this brief, fellow David Gantz explores what these arrangements could achieve and the potential legal and constitutional constraints that may limit their reach.

A regulation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) required that, starting January 1, 2021, all U.S. hospitals publicly display the cash price as well as the minimum and maximum negotiated charge for 300 “shoppable services.”

The author reviews recent developments in organized retail crime, as well as federal and state policy responses. Read the post on the Baker Institute Blog.

On August 31, 2021, Energy Dialogues and the Center for Energy Studies hosted the Houston Energy Dialogues for the fifth consecutive year. Co-sponsors of this event were Sempra LNG, Schlumberger and Validere. As in previous years, the dialogues provided a platform for in-depth conversations about the energy industry involving representatives from government, industry, academia, environmental groups and regulatory bodies. Resiliency was a central theme. This report summarizes the day's discussions.

Last week, the Joe Biden administration released a long-awaited executive order containing a government-wide outline for digital assets, focusing on cryptocurrency. The guidance is a welcome and timely development for both regulators and investors.

This October the U.S. and Mexico agreed on a new bilateral security program, but "unless the United States and Mexico pursue domestic structural reforms ... both nations risk backsliding to the failures of the drug wars," writes MGA student and Drug Policy guest contributor Sidney Phillips.