On Thursday, June 28, 2007, the Senate immigration bill fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed on a procedural vote to move the bill toward final passage. Despite the breadth of contentious debate surrounding the comprehensive immigration reform, key questions were missing from the heart of the discussion:

• What drives almost 500,000 Mexicans to immigrate to the United States every year, leaving home for a risky, uncertain, and difficult life abroad?
  
  
• Wasn't NAFTA supposed to lift boats on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, making widespread immigration a thing of the past?
  
  
• Why can't the Mexican economy produce opportunities at home for Mexican workers and farmers?

Global Exchange is drawing together a diverse group of researchers, advocates, and policy makers on both sides of the U.S. - Mexico border to help expand the debate on immigration and support policies that deal with its root causes. We bring to this effort over a decade's worth of advocacy in Mexico and the United States relating to human rights, economic development, and democracy.

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