The SMU Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center and the Baker Institute Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University, would like to invite you to the event Labor Based Immigration Reform on Thursday, May 23. Both organizations will bring their experts to discuss why immigration reform based on market needs is so urgent and why it's such a relevant topic for the private sector.

Time:

5:30 p.m. Registration and reception

6:00 p.m. Program

Location: HT Chamber, Ground Floor, Hughes-Trigg Student Center, SMU.  3140 Dyer St., Dallas, TX  75205

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. Click below to register.

Featuring:

Ivan Rodriguez, Research Scholar, Baker Institute

Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez, Ph.D., is a research scholar for the Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico. His research focuses on international trade, migration, environmental economics and economic growth. Prior to joining the Baker Institute, he studied the energy and water markets of the Paso del Norte region as a research associate for the Hunt Institute at The University of Texas at El Paso. Rodriguez-Sanchez also worked as a deputy director in environmental economics at the Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climático (INECC), where he analyzed different environmental problems in Mexico and crafted different public policy solutions. He has taught economics classes and seminars at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla and Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca. His work has also been published in both academic and non-academic publications.

Rodriguez-Sanchez received a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science and a master’s degree in economics from the Universidad de las Américas Puebla, and master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he specialized in environmental economics, international trade, and econometrics.

Madeline Zavodny, Research Fellow, SMU Texas-Mexico Center | Professor of Economics at UNF

Madeline Zavodny is the Donna L. Gibbs and First Coast Systems Professor of Economics at UNF. She is also a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), a Fellow at the Global Labor Organization, and an Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Her research focuses on economic issues related to immigration, including Beside the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Reform in a New Era of Globalization (AEI Press, 2010) and The Economics of Immigration (Routledge, 2015; 2nd ed. 2021). Her research on immigration has also been published in the Journal of Labor Economics, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and Demography, among others. Before joining UNF she was a professor of economics at Agnes Scott College and Occidental College and an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. She holds a PhD in Economics from MIT and a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Tony Payan, Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies | Director, Center for the United States and Mexico

Tony Payan, Ph.D., is the Françoise and Edward Djerejian Fellow for Mexico Studies and director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is also a professor of social sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Between 2001 and 2015, Payan was a professor of political science at The University of Texas at El Paso. Payan’s research focuses primarily on border studies, particularly the U.S.-Mexico border. His work centers largely on issues of borderlands as areas of habitation, including the various conditions that affect life in liminal spaces. This includes cross-border flows, both legal and illegal, of people and contraband, as well as border governance. He also researches problems affecting the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Payan has authored two books, “Cops, Soldiers and Diplomats: Understanding Agency Behavior in the War on Drugs” (2006) and “The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration and Homeland Security” (2016). He has also co-authored a book tentatively titled “Una Guerra Improvisada: Historias Personales y Política Pública en la Guerra contra las Drogas bajo la Administración de Felipe Calderón” (“An Improvised War: Personal Stories and Public Policy in the War on Drugs during the Felipe Calderón Administration”) (forthcoming). Additionally, he has co-edited the following books: 1) “Gobernabilidad e Ingobernabilidad en la Región Paso del Norte”(“Governance and Ungovernability in the North Paso Region,” 2004); 2) “Human Rights Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: Gendered Violence and Insecurity” (2009); 3) “De Soldaderas a Activistas: La mujer chihuahuense en los albores del Siglo XXI” (“From Soldaderas to Activist: The Chihuahuense Woman at the dawn of the XXI Century,” 2011); 4) “A War that Can’t Be Won: Binational Perspectives on the War on Drugs” (2013); 5) “Undecided Nation: Political Gridlock and the Immigration Crisis” (2014); 6) "Reforma Energética y Estado de Derecho en México,” (“The Rule of Law and Mexico’s Energy Reform,” 2016); 7) “The Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations: Strategic Foresight” (2020); and 8) “Binational Commons: Institutional Development and Governance on the U.S.-Mexico Border” (2020). He is currently working on another volume tentatively titled “El Estado de los partidos políticos y el futuro de la democracia en México” (“The State of Political Parties and the Future of Democracy in Mexico”) (forthcoming). In addition, he has authored numerous book chapters, monographies and journal articles. Payan has served on several boards, including the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority in El Paso, Texas, and the Plan Estratégico de Juárez in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. He is a member of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Immigration Task Force and the Mexico Energy Task Force. He previously served as president of the Association of Borderlands Studies between 2009 and 2010. Payan earned a B.A. in philosophy and classical languages from the University of Dallas and an MBA from the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management. He received a doctorate degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 2001.

Any person who requires a reasonable accommodation on the basis of a disability in order to participate in this program should contact the SMU Tower Center at tower@smu.edu in advance at least 4 days prior to the event to arrange for the accommodation.

SMU Texas-Mexico Center | https://www.smu.edu/Dedman/Research/Institutes-and-Centers/Texas-Mexico

3300 University Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75275-0117

214-768-4716