Fronteras: A Changing America

The United States-Mexico border needs more customs officers, not more Border Patrol agents, according to a team of U.S. and Mexican researchers.

“At this point in time we’re at or past the point of diminishing returns in terms of Border Patrol staffing,” said Erik Lee, Associate Director of Arizona State University’s North American Center for Transborder Studies.

In 2012, more than 80,000 immigrants were convicted of illegal entry and reentry into the United States, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

SAN DIEGO — In a hushed beige room at San Diego's Hotel Handlery, clusters of well-dressed American public relations executives mingled. The February luncheon — formally titled "How PR Shaped Baja California's Resurgence" — was an insider's look the inner workings of a highly regarded campaign.

TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Border Patrol agents are safe from sequestration budget cuts, but will face reductions to overtime pay under a budget plan introduced by the Department of Homeland Security.

PHOENIX — Let's call it the snowbird provision.

Buried in more than 800 pages of the immigration reform legislation currently under debate is a proposal that would allow Canadians to visit second homes in the U.S. for up to eight months at a time.

It’s one of two proposals in the bill aimed at boosting foreign retirements here.

Canadian snowbirds and real estate investors have already made their mark in Phoenix.

New data from the Census Bureau projects that immigration will be the main driver of United States population growth sometime between 2027 and 2038, surpassing births on U.S. soil.

Exactly when that will happen is hard to pin down, because so much depends on immigration policy and global economics.

But assuming it does happen, it’ll be the first time since at least 1850, when the Census started collecting information about where U.S. residents were born.

TUCSON, Ariz. — The former federal prosecutor for Arizona who resigned after a gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious may now face ethical violations.

The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Justice said former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke leaked a memo to Fox News in 2011. The OIG said it believes Burke was trying to discredit a key whistleblower to the gunwalking operation.

The union representing officers who oversee legal immigration to the U.S. says the Senate's immigration reform bill would make our current immigration system worse, not better.

SAN DIEGO — On Friday, a beauty pageant unfolded under bright lights in Tijuana. Among the high heels and sparkly dresses were barbed wire and armed guards.

SAN DIEGO — In 2012, statistician Nate Silver made headlines when he accurately predicted the outcomes for the presidential election in all 50 states.

While political scientists have been forecasting election results for decades, very few forecast legislation. But in San Diego, one assistant professor is doing just that. He’s forecasting the outcome for immigration reform.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RIO GRANDE — In the rural border areas of Texas, seven so-called ‘informal crossings’ were shut down following Sept. 11. These were border villages and rural economies that thrived on their interdependence. The actual border was invisible. But the shutdown destroyed that connection. Recently, two border villages were reunited briefly for a single day celebration.

For one glorious moment, real world geopolitics was forgotten. Paso Lajitas, Mexico and Lajitas, Texas were again united — not cut off from one another as they’ve been in a post-Sept. 11 world.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego will soon have a youth orchestra linking musicians from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Select musicians from the Centro de Artes Musicales in Tijuana and the San Diego Young Artists Symphony (soon to be the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra) are coming together to form a binational orchestra.

Limited community college capacity could keep 2.5 million Californians out of the system over the next 10 years. The seat shortage is expected to fall hardest on Latino students, squeezing 840,000 out of the schools.

Since 2007, San Diego Community Colleges have cut more than 2,600 class sections, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Colleges lost 1,600 classes and Palomar College halved its summer offerings.

Mexico Now A Latin American Leader In Tech Services

In the last decade Mexico’s tech industry has flourished, growing three times faster than the global average. Most of that growth is fueled by demand from the United States.

But without certain reforms Mexico’s progress can only go so far.