In Arizona Mitt Romney sticks to his usual stump speech avoiding immigration in favor of hitting his Republican rivals. Rep. Luis Gutierrez Democratic stalwart for immigration reform joined Rep. Raul Grijalva at the Southwest Border in Nogales to highlight the importance of the movement of legal commerce  and people from the border region to the country overall as a component of our current national discussion around immigration reform. Mexico’s national tourism agency released figures recently which highlighted record number of tourists vacationing in their country.

Mitt Romney seeks conservative cred in Arizona In Arizona Mitt Romney sticks to his usual stump speech avoiding immigration in favor of hitting his Republican rivals. “Without mentioning Rick Santorum by name, Romney delivered an attack on his leading GOP opponent’s résumé while defending his own experience. Though Santorum is not a big threat to Romney in Arizona’s Feb. 28 primary, the two are running close in Michigan, where Romney was raised and where his father served as governor. “We’ve got four guys on the Republican side all running for president,” Romney told the older crowd of about 2,000 people gathered at an outdoor amphitheater in this Mormon-heavy Phoenix suburb.

Congressmen travel to Nogales for big-picture view of the border  Rep. Luis Gutierrez Democratic stalwart for immigration reform joined Rep. Raul Grijalva at the Southwest Border in Nogales to highlight the importance of the movement of legal commerce  and people from the border region to the country overall as a component of our current national discussion around immigration reform. “The council chambers at City Hall were converted into a congressional hearing room on Friday as a four-member delegation of U.S. representatives came to town to hear local officials and community leaders testify on border issues. The ad hoc field hearing was organized by Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat who represents Nogales and Rio Rico in Congress. He said the idea was to expand the discussion of border policy to include economic and social issues as well as security concerns. “We understand enforcement. We are not begrudging or taking away from that effort,” Grijalva said at the start of the meeting. “But we also feel that you need a complete picture of what the border is and what the border needs.”"

Mexico sets tourism record despite drug violence Mexico’s national tourism agency released figures recently which highlighted record number of tourists vacationing in their country. “Mexico attracted a record number of foreign visitors last year despite a frightening drug war that is prompting travel warnings for a number of areas around the country. Mexico’s tourism agency released new figures (link in Spanish) showing that the number of foreign travelers arriving by air in 2011 rose to 22.7 million, the most since the Bank of Mexico began keeping track in 1980. There was growth in each of the last five months of the year, officials said. Tourism also got a boost from Mexican travelers, who registered 167 million visits to tourist spots. The total of Mexican and foreign tourists was 2% higher than for 2008, which had been the best year on record.”