US-Mexico Relations: Restoring an Intermestic Agenda

After four years of a catastrophic administration, President Joe Biden and his team know there is no room for improvisation. Domestically, the US is suffering the health, social, and economic consequences of Trump's pandemic mismanagement. The US's prestige has been diminished globally, and international competitors increasingly challenge the influence we once had. Yet, the new administration can restore the US's leadership by having a foreign policy focused on international openness, cooperation, and multilateral governance.

Restoring the soul of the United States

President Joe Biden has vowed to repair alliances through diplomacy and to restore Washington's leadership position on the global stage through engagement (White House, 2021). After receiving a weakened White House, President Biden is attempting to project a new course focused on American democratic values. No longer will America's rhetorical discourse be replete with racism and xenophobia; instead, the Presidency intends to project a vision where democracy prevails, despite being tested and assaulted.

From day one, the 46th President of the United States has made a clear statement that we need to focus on a new era of trust and cooperation. Joe Biden's executive orders have signaled that while new laws make their way to his desk, his priority is to eliminate bad policies enacted by Trump (White House 2, 2021). With the stroke of a pen, Biden started his Presidency by issuing executive orders to create a recovery plan for COVID-19, halt the border wall's construction, reverse the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, and embraced transformational policies on the environment, immigration, and ethics.

Small actions such as re-creating the Spanish version of the White House website or having at the center of the oval office the bust of the Mexican-American labor leader and civil activist Cesar Chavez reveal more extensive policies and commitments. 

The work will not be easy, and Congress will be responsible for the legislative debate for the policies that will move the nation forward. Most of the back and forth - give and take - will occur in the House and narrowly divided Senate. In a context of acute polarization, the challenge relies on demonstrating that implementing Biden's legislative proposals can boost economic resiliency, stem unmanaged migration to the US, mitigate the impact of organized crime, and enhance citizen security (Runde, 2021).

Mexico: an uncertain ally?

During the last years, the Trump administration's approach forced Mexico to engage in a flagrant violation of the rights of many migrants through arbitrary detentions, unsanitary conditions in its detention centers, and an absence of a due process for asylum seekers (Payan, 2021). In return, Trump turned a blind eye to the emergence of a populist regime that began to renege on many of the commitments it had undertaken as a North American partner (Dresser, 2021). For the last four years, the US has barely said a word about corruption, democracy, or human rights violations, and never defended the private sector over blatant USMCA violations. 

Shannon O'Neil (2021), a senior fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, considers that it could be quite uncomfortable for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) with a more active Biden involvement in international commitments. Keep in mind that president AMLO visited Trump in Washington during the US presidential campaign to celebrate the USMCA when Trump's rhetoric and treatment of migrants were full of xenophobia and chauvinism. By contrast, Mexico's President took six weeks to acknowledge Biden's election victory and eventually sent a cool letter by reminding the president-elect that he must respect Mexican sovereignty. 

AMLO's erratic behavior continued by offering political asylum to Julian Assange and celebrating his extradition from the UK. Then, AMLO's party introduced and passed legislation in Mexico's Congress restricting Mexican authorities' abilities to work with DEA and ATF agents in Mexico. As if that wasn't enough, AMLO accused Washington of fabricating drug trafficking charges against a Mexican Secretary of Defense and demanded his return, which AG Barr agreed to. Then, AMLO declined to condemn the US Capitol's assault by Trump supporters as world leaders promptly sent their messages to Washington. 

Washington wants to believe that AMLO is a pragmatic politician and understands that Mexico's bilateral relationship's relevance should prevail over politics, considering it's our second-largest trade partner, ranking between China and Canada (USCB, 2020). Nevertheless, soon, President Biden will get a detailed geo-political report from all the relevant agencies that will lay out an array of topics, including the Northern Triangle country implications, the USMCA trade agreement, Biden's green agenda, free and fair elections, human rights abuses, free press assassinations, violence escalation, and COVID-19 mismanagement, among other hot topics in Mexico (Casta?eda, 2021; O'Neil, 2021; Dresser, 2021). In the end, the US-Mexico relation and its border is a powerful symbol of history and politics that implies a bilateral relationship based on an intermestic agenda; it's an international country with massive domestic implications (intermestic).

We need more intermestic specialists!

Mexico's US relations are quintessentially intermestic. Foreign policy actions can have domestic political consequences, and domestically motivated actions can have foreign policy implications (Snow and Haney, 2013). In other words, it means that they embody challenges and opportunities that are simultaneously domestic and international. 

Given its dual nature, new issues on the global agenda would have an immediate and profound impact against domestic interests. Decision-making must take account of the intermestic nature of the US-Mexico relationship. It requires precise policy formulation and in-depth knowledge of experts who understand the policies developed in Washington and Mexico City. As a result, decision-makers or organizations with a better in-depth understanding of local and global implications will skillfully manage opportunities and mitigate risks. 

In my professional experience as former Chief of Staff at US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), one of the largest departments of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the US's foreign policy authority with border neighbor countries (the US and Canada) creates fragmentation and makes management more complicated than necessary. Responsibility is divided between officials who manage either a foreign policy portfolio or a domestic policy portfolio. Serving previously as Director of the Arizona Department of Commerce and as mayor of Nogales gave me the opportunity to understand the international perspective, but decide for the local benefit. Decisions had to be very agile, smart, and beneficial to residents and the state economy. This understanding is what is missing in Washington and Mexico City that are thousands of miles away from the real - on the ground - impact. I am hopeful that this will change.

Having an intermestic perspective will help the current administration better understand the challenges and potential risks in the US-Mexico relation. President Biden is a clear example of a statesman with more than fifty years of experience in Washington and countless trips to Latin America, giving him a realistic view of the region while understanding domestic and foreign policy implications. Therefore, one of the first tasks, I believe, will be to convince AMLO of the urgent need for a new framework to collaborate and meet him halfway (Berg, 2021). 

Washington has a big challenge to promote the conditions for having an agenda with their counterpart in Mexico City that counterbalances other global interests in the region like China, Russia, and several Middle Eastern countries vying for Mexico's proximity to the US. In the end, we are living uncommon worldwide circumstances that demand improving collaboration and cooperation towards a more active and agile "foreign" policy with local benefits. Knowing the key leaders around Biden, I am confident that positive movement will be made.

What do you think? Do you believe the US-Mexico relation will improve or continue to deteriorate? Which topics can help to have a better intermestic connection and which should be avoided? As always, I like to read your comments.

Stay safe!

Sources:

Berg, R. 2021. The Mérida Initiative may be dead, but restarting US-Mexico security cooperation will be crucial. American Enterprise Institute. URL: https://www.aei.org/articles/the-merida-initiative-may-be-dead-but-restarting-us-mexico-security-cooperation-will-be-crucial/

Casta?eda, J. 2021. Why Biden will have to help Mexico. CNN. URL: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/opinions/why-biden-will-have-to-help-mexico-jorge-castaeda/index.html

Dresser, D. 2021. Mexico's President Is Spoiling for a Fight With Washington. Foreign Policy. URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/mexico/2021-02-01/mexicos-president-spoiling-fight-washington

Payan, T. 2021. Linking immigration, Economic Opportunity, and the Rule of Law in Mexico and Central Mexico. Rice University. Baker Institute for Public Policy. URL: https://www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/files/f79fd48f/bi-brief-012721-usmx-immigration.pdf

Runde, D. 2021. An Alliance for Prosperity 2.0. Center for Strategic & International Studies. URL: https://www.csis.org/analysis/alliance-prosperity-20

O'Neil, S. 2021. U.S.-Mexico Partnership Will Get More Prickly. Bloomberg. URL: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-12/u-s-mexico-partnership-will-get-more-prickly-under-biden-and-amlo

Snow, D. and Haney, P. 2013. American Foreign Policy in a New Era. Pearson Education.

USCB (US Census Bureau). 2020. Foreign Trade. Top Trading Partners-December 2020. URL: https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/toppartners.html

Wayne, E. 2021. How Biden, Trudeau and AMLO can achieve North America's promise. The Hill. URL: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/534812-how-biden-trudeau-and-amlo-can-achieve-north-americas-promise#.YAsvUQoZ-iE.twitter

White House. 2021. Remarks by President Biden on America's Place in the World. URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/04/remarks-by-president-biden-on-americas-place-in-the-world/

White House 2. 2021. Remarks by President Biden at Signing of Executive Orders Advancing His Priority to Modernize Our Immigration System. URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/02/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-executive-orders-advancing-his-priority-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/

White House 3. 2021. FACT SHEET: President Biden Outlines Steps to Reform Our Immigration System by Keeping Families Together, Addressing the Root Causes of Irregular Migration, and Streamlining the Legal Immigration System. URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/02/02/fact-sheet-president-biden-outlines-steps-to-reform-our-immigration-system-by-keeping-families-together-addressing-the-root-causes-of-irregular-migration-and-streamlining-the-legal-immigration-syst/