Mexican tourists are an underappreciated economic boost to U.S. Southwest
Photo Credit: A sign at the border of Ciudad Juárez, México and El Paso, Texas. Flickr / Scazon
Skift Take
Tourism and trade work hand-in-hand along the U.S.-Mexico border making shorter wait times, more ports of entry, and less violence vital steps to boosting economies in both countries.
As the Congress debates immigration reform legislation, millions of tourists and billions of dollars continue to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in both directions.
A study released earlier this month by NDN, a center-left think-tank based in Washington, D.C., shows trade and tourism between the two countries is at an all-time high (full PDF embedded below).
Trade between the two nations in 2012 was estimated at $535 billion. That number is up from $300 billion in 2009, a number that's projected to double by this year, said Simon Rosenberg, the president of NDN.
Texas leads all states with almost $200 billion in imports and exports with Mexico.
Trade with Mexico sustains almost 6 million U.S. jobs, the NDN study said. In the Rio Grande Valle
