In the wake of recent attacks across the globe, fears over terrorism, immigrants and illicit drugs have been used to justify costly proposals for thousands of miles of walls along our Southern border and bans on the admission to the United States of refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria, or even bans on entire religious groups. This heated political rhetoric obscures the complexity of the border reality confronted by the United States and its neighbors, all of whom benefit from growing cross-border trade and travel.
