Dallas Morning News
Originally Posted: September 5, 2015
On first official trip to Mexico, Gov. Abbott must balance politics, diplomacy
Arizona, long a hotbed of anti-immigrant sentiment, finally swallowed its pride and sent a delegation to Mexico City, a mission designed to beckon Mexican shoppers north. The 2013 trip was known as the apology tour. Last year, California retooled its Mexico City office and hosted the Mexican president for his first U.S. state visit.
Following years of acrimonious relationships with Mexico, U.S. states along the Mexican border are finding that a little good-neighbor outreach serves their economic interests. Texas is about to take what some experts call a similar mea culpa journey as Gov. Greg Abbott visits Mexico with a top-level business delegation beginning this weekend.
For Abbott, the fine line between diplomacy and keeping his conservative base happy will be tested when he meets with the government of Enrique Peña Nieto, who’s facing his own internal struggles as he enters the third year of a six-year presidency. The visit comes as presidential candidates, led by GOP front-runner Donald Trump, fan the fires of border fears with polarizing issues, from building more walls to denying birthright citizenship to children of unauthorized immigrants.
“Governor Abbott’s visit to Mexico comes at a sensitive time,” said Christian Zlolniski, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. “It’s a litmus test of his willingness to develop a friendly and mutually productive relation with the neighbor south of the border. How he responds to this challenge will shape the relationship of his administration with Mexico in the future.”
Southern Methodist University is expected to announce during the Abbott visit that it will establish a Tower Center program to study the Texas-Mexico relationship. READ MORE