It is eerie and ugly, coming home to a state of the union that now incites cops to roust fourth-generation Americans on the simple evidence of a suntan. That smacks of what evil empires do. Arizona is not yet Azerbaijan but neither is it, any longer, the big-hearted Mexican-accented place I loved to say I was from. Read more»

Experts say that since the practice began nine years ago, as many as 20 million Mexicans have fallen victim to "virtual kidnappings" — an effective extortion technique in a country where real kidnappings are a common occurrence. Read more»

Border security issues are hampering plans to create an international park by combining Big Bend National Park in Texas with protected areas in Mexico. Read more»

Why mess around? If you're going to change the law, change the state bird (perhaps to the dodo?), change the state colors (to white, of course), and change the flag. Read more»

How will the police be able to tell 'real' Americans from suspected illegal immigrants? They'll ask 'em stuff only 'real' Americans would know. Read more»

Draconian immigration laws are an odd thing in a country where everyone (with sincere apologies to our native American friends) is descended from immigrants. Read more»

Just days after the majority of military troops deployed to patrol the streets of the most violent city in the Americas withdrew, the city's mayor concedes his local police force is still infiltrated with elements of organized crime. Read more»

Ciudad Mariche is a "socialist city," a project designed to solve not only Venezuela's chronic housing shortage but provide long-term solutions to poverty and crime. But like many of Hugo Chavez's policies, it also courts controversy. Critics say it may be a surreptitious way of invading the right to private property. Read more»

Five thousand people have been murdered in the dying border city of Ciudad Juarez since 2008. Read more»

A trip into a border city scarred by the narco-war. The biggest risk is getting mugged, not getting shot. Small comfort. Read more»

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the other top U.S. officials who stopped by Mexico this week had nice things to say about President Felipe Calderon. Read more»

The big question for both the United States and Mexico is whether or not to continue with a heavily militarized approach in the fight against drug traffickers. With Secretary of State Clinton's announcement Tuesday, the Obama administration seems to be voting no. Read more»

Lawmakers from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border were in Mexico City last week discussing plans to combat growing border drug violence (Audio report). Read more»

A year ago, Domingo Castillo Yoc lived with three siblings and his parents in a rural village. Today, he stands guard in front of a small shipping business in a dodgy neighborhood in Guatemala City. Read more»

Steeped in the annals of America's symbiotic relationship with Mexico is the two countries’ long-standing and sometimes tense agreement over an issue more far-reaching than border security and immigration: water. Read more»