2024 Legislative Delegation Visit to Guadalajara

 The California Border Issues Project (CBIP) led a successful legislative delegation visit to Mexico City in the fall of 2023. State legislators, civic leaders, business officials, organized labor, and CBIP volunteers participated in the educational and investigative trip focused on policy issues involving California and Mexico.

  In advance of the trip, the participants listened to Ambassador Nathan Wolf Lustbader, the general director of the Mexican Council on International Affairs (COMEXI). A career diplomat for more than 20 years, Ambassador Lustbader framed the current political relationship between the United States (US)/California and Mexico, and highlighted several potential policy flashpoints between the two countries, including renewable energy, immigration, and trade.  

Upon arriving in Mexico City, our trip’s participants heard from Dr. Hector Cardenas, a member of Mexico’s Foreign Relations Council and a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Dr. Cardenas went into depth about the historical relationship between the US/California and Mexico and explained the current political dynamics in Mexico – especially in light of the country’s upcoming presidential election.

  A highlight of CBIP’s event was spending time at Alianza MX, a University of California center dedicated to engaging with the private and public sectors and other stakeholders on both sides of the border to build resilient and informed public policies that advance the US-Mexico cooperation agenda. There, our group heard from Dr. Francisco Estrada (UNAM/PINCC), Angélica Vesga (World Resources Institute), Diana Alarcón (chief advisor to the mayor and foreign affairs coordinator for Mexico City), and Odon de Buen (Comisión Nacional para el Uso Eficiente de la Energía, México). This august group shared with us their perspectives on the potential for California and Mexico to collaborate on important policy issues of mutual concern, including climate change, the clean energy transition, and environmental quality.

Thereafter, our group met with more than two dozen distinguished guests of Alianza MX, including representatives from the Universidad Politécnica Santa Rosa Jáuregui, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, the Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciónes y Estudios sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo, the Center for Research on North America at the Universidad Nacional Atuónoma de México, the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico, OCA Reputación, World Vision Mexico, Iniciativa Climática de México, World Resources Institute México, Cámara Nacional de Manufacturas Eléctricas, Gobierno de la Ciudad de México – Jefatura de Gobierno, AMEXCID, the United States Embassy, and Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Later during the trip, our group visited the Palacio Nacional, the seat of the federal branch of the Mexican government, and home to the offices of the president of Mexico and the US Embassy in Mexico City. There, our group met with the deputy chief of mission and several subject area staff, including from the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service’s Agricultural Tade Office. The group discussed important bilateral issues with the State Department staff, including trade, the fentanyl trafficking, counterfeit goods, family reunification policies, and backlogs in processing naturalization applications.

On another day, the CBIP delegation visited a new, state-of-the-art energy storage facility outside Mexico City and learned about Mexico’s, California’s, and the United States’ interdependence in terms of energy production and refining. According to the California Energy Commission, for example, Mexico supplies California with about 5% of California’s petroleum. Conversely, US facilities refine a large percentage of Mexico’s petroleum.

Finally, CBIP’s delegation spent time at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM). The campus is one of Mexico’s premiere public research universities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There, at UNAM’s Institute of Engineering, the group discussed water, coastal resilience, climate change, and agriculture with the Director of the Institute of Engineering Rosa María Ramírez, Faculty at UNAM-Sisal Yucatan Dr. Christian Appendini, Dr. Ramón Domínguez, Former Director of the National Water Council (CONAGUA) Dr. Fernando González, and Director of Stakeholder Engagement Professor María del Rocío Cassaigne.

The CBIP board is grateful to all those who participated in the legislative delegation visit to Mexico City and all of the volunteers who helped organize the event. CBIP’s board believes that this event enhanced the depth of knowledge and scope of insights into the important issues facing both California and Mexico, and will contribute to more informed and effective policy discussions in the future.