Mexico Program Fellow Gilberto García-Vazquez examines how the binding constraint on North American integration has shifted from tariffs to verification, and what that means for the Juárez–El Paso corridor.
Since returning to the White House in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump has put the fentanyl crisis at the center of U.S. policy toward Latin America.
The January 3 U.S. operation to arrest Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro on drug trafficking charges sent shock waves throughout Latin America. These were particularly pronounced in Mexico, given President Trump’s associated comment that the U.S. needs to “do something about Mexico”, where drug cartels “run the country”.
With a constant stream of offensive and intimidating rhetoric addressed to Mexico, compounded by a mean-spirited and highly contentious set of policy proposals, Trump himself is largely responsible for the sharp deterioration in bilateral ties in the past two years.
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