An updated overview of the Texas border

Creator

Baltazar Arispe y Acevedo Jr.
Ignacio E. Rodríguez, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Oralia De Los Reyes
University of Texas at Brownsville
Texas Southmost College

Files

Creation Date

8-15-2003

Disciplines

Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Sociology

Description

This report, An Overview of the Texas Border, should be considered part of a longitudinal study. The initial baseline report, The Border: Texas’ Roadway to the 21st Century, was written by J. Michael Patrick and Baldomero Garcia for the Texas Infrastructure Coalition [TBIC] in June 2000. The report was a commissioned study of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. The current research effort is also a commissioned study of CBIRD: The Cross Border Institute for Regional Development at The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Texas.

TBIC, the sponsor of this study, was organized in 1998 with the expressed mission of addressing the infrastructure needs of the communities along the Texas-Mexico Border. Of primary interest to TBIC is the continued viability and sustainability of the target region to participate fully in the implementation and expansion of NAFTA. This report provides a context to guide the policy, advocacy agenda and strategic plans of TBIC.

The Patrick/Garcia report ends with data that covers most of the 1990’s. The purpose of this report is to assess data that covers the fiscal years 2000, 2001 and parts of 2002. CBIRD provides a broader overview of the border than Patrick/Garcia and this was done so that a context of the region could provide guidance to TBIC as it considers its policy agendas. Another key consideration by CBIRD was to provide references from the Internet that could be accessed in a timely manner by TBIC to review the data that guide this study.

The research provides an overview of transportation issues, legislation, governance and fiscal issues that originate with the Texas Department of Transportation which is the state agency that is the focus of TBIC’s policy initiatives at this time. Another point to consider here was the orientation of CBIRD to provide a non-biased framework and policy perspectives to guide rather than lead TBIC in its deliberations of the Texas Border infrastructure. It is the expressed hope of CBIRD that TBIC continue to fund research to extend and continually update the data that both Texas A&M International University and the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College have initiated. The need to access and assess timely research, to guide data based policy planning and strategic planning, will bode well for TBIC as it takes the advocacy role on behalf of its growing constituent base along the 1,254 miles that make up the Texas-Mexico Border region.

Physical Description

.PDF, 56 Pages, Text, Illustrations

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