Post 9-11 U.S.-Mexico relations examined

A group of experts examined the impact of the September 11 disaster on labor, immigration, trade, and the economy during a symposium called "On the Borderline: The Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations after 9-11." The symposium, which took place in March, was hosted by the LBJ School, the UT Law School, and the Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy.

Before the events of September 11, the administrations of President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox were working closely on a variety of policy issues geared toward strengthening U.S.-Mexico relations. The symposium reconsidered some of the issues that were placed on hold after September 11 and focused on what we can expect between the two countries in the long term.

The keynote speaker was Alfonso de Maria y Campos, director of the Office of North American Affairs, which is part of Mexico's foreign relations department. Participants included experts from both sides of the border. Among them were Charles Cervantes, director of legal affairs and privacy, U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce; Maria Jimenez, director of the Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Program, American Friends Service Committee; Dennis Linskey, director of the Office for U.S.-Mexico Border Affairs, U.S. State Department; and Ron Sievert, chief federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney General's Office.

LBJ School faculty members who served as panelists and moderators were Professors Ray Marshall, Bárbara Robles, Chandler Stolp, and Peter Ward. Marshall is a former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robles is affiliated with the UT Center for Mexican American Studies, Stolp is the director of the UT Inter-American Policy Studies Program, and Ward is the director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies' Mexican Center.

Event sponsors included the School of Law, the LBJ School, the Inter-American Policy Studies Program (with the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation), the Office of the Provost, the University Co-Op, and the law offices of Jose Garza. The Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy is the leading national journal dedicated to the discussion of Latino legal and public policy issues.

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May 13, 2002

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