Research Library

Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez, the postdoctoral research fellow in international trade for the Center for the U.S. and Mexico, analyzes the economic impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions on the tourism industry of Texas border counties, many of which depend on Mexicans entering the U.S. and spending billions of dollars each year.

Immigration policy will look very different in a Trump or Joe Biden presidency. This brief summarizes changes that have occurred under the Trump administration so far and examines the repercussions of the November election on four aspects of immigration policy.

Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs, analyzes the impact of China’s emerging demographic decline, debt burden and increasingly likely structural economic growth downshift on global oil and gas markets.

The author analyzes some important new provisions in the USMCA that were not part of earlier USMCA briefs in this series.

This paper tracks a change in the direction of Mexico’s energy policy under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — a change that inhibits private investment while attempting to restore Pemex’s oil monopoly.

Mexico’s government should prioritize early childhood education, but its decision to reduce the budget and replace a childhood centers program for the disadvantaged indicates it does not, writes graduate fellow Daniel Prudencio.

Mexico’s 2013 energy reform, which opened its hydrocarbon and electricity industries to private investors, increased the autonomy and independence of its regulatory commissions. However, recent decisions by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador now threaten these institutions, writes nonresident scholar Miriam Grunstein.

Using findings from Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer, the author analyzes public perceptions of anticorruption efforts during the López Obrador administration.

When illegal workers use false documents to get a job in the U.S., their employers may complete the paperwork by deducting Social Security, federal, state and Medicare taxes from each paycheck. As of 2010, illegal workers have contributed $12 billion to the Social Security system alone. Such workers face poverty in old age, as they are barred from collecting retirement benefits because of their immigration status, and they have not accrued a pension in their home country.

In the near term, a ban on shale development in Mexico will have little impact since factors like limited infrastructure and access to water would likely stall progress in any case, the authors conclude. In the long-run, a ban may adversely affect efforts to diversify Mexico’s gas supply.