LAREDO, Texas - Dennis E. Nixon, chairman and CEO of IBC Bank, has released an updated version of his Common Sense Border Management Solutions white paper.
The document outlines key recommendations for managing the ongoing challenges at the Texas-Mexico border.
Nixon has issued an updated version of his white paper to coincide with a new national security bill and recent border security rallies along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“There is more to the border than just security,” Nixon said. “Immigration and border management go hand-in-hand, and that’s why we need multi-layered solutions that benefit the United States and Mexico.”
Nixon added: “Because Mexico is Texas’ and the United States’ largest trading partner and our neighbor, we must support a border security plan that continues to foster economic development and our good neighbor policies that have been in place for generations.”
Nixon said his Common Sense solutions include:
• Eliminating the profit motive. Human smugglers are profiting from migrants who risk their entire savings to travel to the United States by encouraging them to game the country’s asylum policy. Immigrants must know that if they make a claim of asylum after entering illegally, they will immediately be deported and won’t be allowed to re-enter the United States. U.S. Customs and Border Protection should only process IDs for future identification, not for entry into the United States or court dates.
• Updating our immigration and asylum laws to establish more legal paths for immigration. Approximately 90 percent of migrants who cross the border without permission are economic migrants who contribute significantly to the U.S. economy and pose no harm. Updated laws will deter most unauthorized migrants, enabling the U.S. Border Patrol to concentrate on stopping the illicit trafficking of drugs and people. Nixon also proposes conducting the asylum application process at the consulate or embassy offices in the migrant’s country of origin and establishing a database of job applicants who want to come to the U.S. to work.
• Increasing funding for immigration judges and establishing an independent court system. Apprehensions are only successful if there is a sufficient immigration judicial system to handle the 3 million-plus cases (as of November 2023) awaiting adjudication. Securing funding for additional immigration judges will aid in addressing an ineffective catch-and-release program and inadequate migrant detention facilities. Nixon also proposes relocating the immigration court system from the U.S. Department of Justice and establishing it as an independent Article 1 court.
• Eradicating and/or suppressing invasive plants such as carrizo cane and salt cedar along the Rio Grande River in Texas – a plan supported by environmentalists – and encourage Mexico to implement a similar plan. Eliminating these invasive plants will give law enforcement greater line of site along the river and remove cover used by smugglers and traffickers, enhancing the river as an effective border barrier.
• Building the Binational Laredo River Park Project in the downtown sector of Laredo/Nuevo Laredo.
• Improving and building road infrastructure along the Rio Grande River. The response times of U.S. Border Patrol agents would significantly improve with the establishment of a continuous road along the river between Laredo and Eagle Pass.
Editor’s Note: Dennis E. Nixon played a pivotal role in the passage of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) and its predecessor, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He is the current chair of the U.S.-Mexico CEO Dialogue’s Trade Policy Working Group — a select group of 25 U.S. and 25 Mexican corporate CEOs whose members address core issues in the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
