American politics and American business converge at the Mexican border. In the popular imagination, we find it peculiar that the crossing is viewed as some sort of national liability. The obvious rebuttal is that Mexico is now the largest US trading partner. Many border issues should be dissected, if not discarded, because they discolor meaningful business opportunities.
The US-Mexico relationship is grand political theater. Both Biden and Trump have threatened to shut down the border, although the Biden approach is the less toxic of the two. For the White House, the move is a tempting maneuver in advance of what is set to be a tightly-contested race. Both recently visited Texas to amplify their positions.
Mexico is the cornerstone of US manufacturing. A recent op-ed piece in the Dallas Morning News, “Nearshoring Offers a Golden Opportunity for Texas and Mexico,” emphasizes the point. The official argues for developing the Interstate 35 corridor—stretching from Saltillo, Coahuila to Duluth, Minnesota—as a preeminent trade route.
The upcoming US presidential election means that headline focus will be on border politics. Forthright approaches to security and surveillance become a litmus test for office qualification. From a commercial viewpoint, the more important platform is how to boost gains that have already been made to improve supply chains with corporate nearshoring. The benefits of job creation and skills development seem obvious. The two perspectives coalesce uncomfortably.
We should make border infrastructure a national priority. For some, that angle is defined as a floating fence down the middle of the Rio Grande or a glistening pile of shipping containers at the land border. For others, the focus is on high-speed toll roads and fast-track immigration check points. The mistake is that we double-down on policy failures, while undermining at-hand and vibrant economic potential.
There are enormous issues at stake at the US-Mexico border. The flow of people trying to cross into the US is surging; field patrols and immigration courts are intolerably understaffed. Closing the border temporarily—whatever that means—seems like a useful tactic to realign limited resources. The very real risk, however, is that the federal government derails trade and investment with unknown, if not permanent, side effects. ■
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