U.S. trade delegation on Monday launched a five-day Mexican border tour by visiting city officials, maquiladoras, and learning about cross-border ports of entry. Select USA, a federal program to attract foreign investment, teaches Mexican citizens about immigration visas, legal and fiscal systems in the U.S. and business opportunities to expand their companies to the U.S. market. Council members of the District of Columbia say they would oppose the federal program Secure Communities by passing a law instructing loal police to ignore requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold people arrested for low-level crimes.

Border Tour Promotes Trade Between the U.S. and Mexico - A U.S. trade delegation on Monday launched a five-day Mexican border tour by visiting city officials, maquiladoras, and learning about cross-border ports of entry. The group includes members of the private and public sectors. It is led by assistant U.S. Commerce Secretary Michael C. Camuñez and members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Anthony Wayne.
 Trade between the U.S. and Mexico reached $500 billion dollars in 2011 and is growing faster than trade with any other large country, including China, according to a paper by the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars.
“Co-author Christopher Wilson says commerce between the U.S. and Mexico has reached a milestone, despite concerns that instability from warring drug cartels would hinder trade.
‘It also leads one to ask what would Mexico’s economic growth and foreign investment look like in Mexico if there were not this security situation? And I think the answer is there would be more,’ Wilson said.”

Federal program recruits Mexican entrepreneurs to invest in the U.S.- Select USA, a federal program to attract foreign investment, teaches Mexican businesspeople about immigration visas, legal and fiscal systems in the U.S. and business opportunities to expand their companies to the U.S. market. The workshops take place in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey from June 6 to 8. The program highlights that foreign investment of Mexican companies in the U.S. has grown 35 percent in the last five years.

D.C. Police Might Ignore Secure Communities- Council members of the District of Columbia say they would oppose the federal program Secure Communities by passing a law instructing loal police to ignore requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold people arrested for low-level crimes. The law would defy the federal immigration enforcement program that the city is forced to join on Tuesday, June 5, 2012.
“Secure Communities opponents, including those in D.C. government, argue that the program encourages racial profiling, separates families and makes it more difficult for police to work with members of local communities. They say the program makes communities less secure, despite the name.”