Stephanie Leutert, the director of the Mexico Security Initiative, weighed in on the recent border migration debate with her recent article, “Who’s Really Crossing the U.S. Border, and Why They’re Coming” for Lawfare.

On Friday, April 27, 2018, four LBJ School of Public Affairs students -- Garrett Shuffield, Michelle Rueda, Carolina Miranda Icazbalceta, and Josh Meuth Alldredge -- traveled to Mexico City to present their Beyond the Border policy research project class findings to clients Sin Fronteras and Mexico’s Federal Police.

Recently, students in the Policy Research Project class “Beyond the Border: Policy Responses for Central American Migration,” led by MSI Director Stephanie Leutert, traveled to Guadalajara and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico to further their understanding of the issues surrounding Central American migration through Mexico.

Stephanie Leutert, Director of the Strauss Center’s Mexico Security Initiative (MSI), was recently quoted in a Texas Tribune article on border dynamics in the Rio Grande Valley. The prospect of border wall construction poses new and complicated challenges for controlling drug and human smuggling, but it alone will not stop transnational criminal activity. Drug and human smugglers, according to the article, have continued to be able to work around physical barriers in other parts of the U.S.-Mexico border by bribing Border Patrol officials and hiding drugs in licit cargo.