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What’s New This Week

Good morning, this week, immigration enforcement power took center stage—with a $350 billion expansion now law and the deportation of Julio César Chávez Jr. signaling that no one is off-limits. At the same time, a growing energy crunch threatens to slow nearshoring momentum in Arizona and Mexico unless bold regional planning kicks in. But not everything is heavy—this summer, the border is also becoming a playground for unexpected sports like padel and pelota, bringing communities together in ways politicians can’t.

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Trade Winds

Power Plays and Border Bets: Why Nearshoring Starts with Electricity and Ends with Security

Nearshoring is having a moment—but its success depends on two underappreciated foundations: power and security. Without both, North America’s promise as a manufacturing hub risks stalling at the starting line.

A recent letter from Arizona Public Service (APS), Arizona’s largest utility, makes the stakes clear. APS is currently preparing to deliver 3.3 gigawatts of power to new data centers and has an additional 15 gigawatts worth of requests in the queue. That’s the energy equivalent of adding several small cities—almost overnight. Their message to city leaders in Phoenix was direct: without better coordination and long-term planning, the region’s energy grid could buckle under the pressure.

This isn’t just a local infrastructure story. It’s a warning shot for the entire U.S.-Mexico border region, where nearshoring strategies are accelerating. But if we don’t start treating power access and public safety as strategic assets—on both sides of the border—we will miss the window.

One border region that illustrates both the challenge and the opportunity is Nogales, Sonora. There, a new industrial and logistics development—known as SouthBridge—is being designed to meet the energy and security demands that serious nearshoring requires. In collaboration with partners on both sides of the border, we’ve supported planning efforts that prioritize not just location and land use, but the infrastructure needed to attract advanced manufacturing. A completed feasibility study confirms scalable energy capacity, while site security is being addressed in coordination with public and private stakeholders.

The goal: to create a complementary, lower-cost expansion point for Phoenix’s booming semiconductor ecosystem—one that supports growth, strengthens cross-border supply chains, and avoids overstretching the region’s power grid or public safety capacity.

Arizona is quickly becoming the heart of America’s semiconductor manufacturing revival, with major investments from companies like TSMC and Intel. But the reality is: clean rooms and chip fabs require enormous, uninterrupted power—and the infrastructure to support them doesn’t stop at the state line. The future of this growth depends on thinking more regionally, more strategically, and more binationally.

That’s why we’re engaging directly with Mexico’s presidential administration. Our message is clear: if we’re serious about nearshoring, we need smart planning—starting at the border. SouthBridge can be the model, but only if we tackle energy and security from the outset, not as afterthoughts.

We’ve already seen what happens when grid capacity becomes an afterthought. Let’s not repeat the same mistakes across the border.

Power Move

The Deportation Machine Just Got Bigger—and Less Transparent

Julio César Chávez Jr.—a former boxing champion and son of Mexico’s most iconic fighter—is being deported by U.S. immigration authorities. He’s not the most sympathetic figure. His past includes substance abuse and legal troubles. But that’s exactly what makes his case important: if the son of a national legend, with legal status and high-profile visibility, can be swept up and removed without much explanation—what chance do ordinary people have?

It’s not just Chávez Jr. We’ve seen sitting Mexican governors denied U.S. visas. That may be justified in many cases. But when viewed together, these incidents reveal a larger shift: immigration enforcement power is growing fast, and the guardrails are coming off.

And now, it’s official policy.

Donald Trump has signed into law a sweeping immigration and defense package totaling $350 billion. A significant portion of that funding is directed at expanding deportation efforts, detention capacity, and the operational power of agencies like ICE and CBP. This isn’t a proposal—it’s law. And it marks the most dramatic expansion of immigration enforcement funding in modern history.

What does a system look like with massive new funding but no meaningful oversight?

We’re already seeing it:
– Legal visa holders detained without cause
– U.S. citizens mistakenly arrested by ICE
– Families separated over database errors
– Entire communities chilled into silence

These aren’t isolated incidents—they’re symptoms of a system where enforcement has outpaced accountability.

This isn’t about defending every individual caught up in the system. It’s about asking: Who’s watching the watchers? And what happens when no one is?

Now is the time to demand transparency, challenge unchecked power, and insist that even immigration enforcement answer to the values we claim to defend. If we don’t set limits—who will?

The Border Buzz

From Pelota to Padel: The Border’s Unexpected Sports RevolutionHarvesting Border Resilience

This summer, sports diplomacy along the U.S.-Mexico border isn’t just about baseball or boxing. It’s about padel, frontón, futsal, and even Basque pelota. From the courts of Tijuana to rec centers in El Paso and Hermosillo, these lesser-known but internationally popular sports are gaining ground—and offering a whole new arena for cultural connection.

In Mexico, padel—a racquet sport combining elements of tennis and squash—is booming. Courts are popping up in border cities like Mexicali and Ciudad Juárez, with some Americans crossing south just to get in a match. Basque pelota, with its lightning-fast wall play, still has cultural and historic pull in northern Mexico, especially in older communities with Spanish and Basque roots.

Meanwhile, futsal—a faster, indoor variant of soccer—is creating opportunities for youth engagement in border towns where full fields aren’t always available. And frontón, a cousin to racquetball and squash, has quietly persisted in parts of Mexico and even inspired crossover interest in places like Nogales and San Diego.

Why does this matter?

Because sports—especially unexpected ones—are building bridges where politics sometimes builds walls. These games don’t require big stadiums or global sponsors. Just shared space, energy, and a willingness to compete (and laugh) across languages and borders.

This summer, the border is proving that you don’t need to play the same game to be on the same team.

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