Stephanie Leutert, Director of the Mexico Security Initiative, has been awarded the Mexico Center Award for Opinion Writing by the LLILAS Benson Mexico Center. The award recognizes five U.T. faculty members for publications relating to UT Mexico work.

In her article, “How Many Central Americans Are Traveling North,” Mexico Security Initiative Director Stephanie Leutert, along with LBJ Student Sarah Spalding, attempt to calculate how many Central Americans are making the trip to the United States. To answer the question, they build a model that incorporates data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexico's National Migration Institute, divided into categories such as families, unaccompanied minors, and adults.

Beginning in August 2018, the Mexico Security Initiative’s Policy Research Project has been working with FM4 Paso Libre, an NGO that offers humanitarian assistance to migrants in transit and also conducts research on migration in Mexico. The 16 graduate students in the class are conducting research on four timely topics, including 1) the integration of refugees into Mexican society; 2) the challenges for unaccompanied children; 3) the current state of migration detention centers; and 4) the legacy of the country's 2014 migratory enforcement policy Programa Frontera Sur.

In a recent article for Lawfare, Strauss Senior Fellow and Mexico Security Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow Jake Dizard analyzes the future of Mexican national security under new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or, as he is known by the public and in the media, AMLO. Dizard suggests that although AMLO was elected by a “public that yearns for a dramatic change of direction,” AMLO’s plan for addressing ongoing violence in Mexico only deepens the state’s commitment to the militarized strategy that has proved unsuccessful since 2006.