Experts in the News

A divided congress has made immigration a difficult topic, but an aging working population and flat or dropping fertility rates are creating space to be filled, said Payan. “It doesn’t mean we have to take in 100 million people from around the world, but there is room for a few million that can settle and revitalize” communities and the U.S. economy.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure from the Biden administration on the Lopez Obrador administration to crack down. Biden has a particular interest in deactivating immigration as a political issue in the fall, this is his Achilles heel,” said Payan. The surge in illegal migration has proven to not be “politically sustainable in Mexico, in the US, or anywhere else."

Christian nationalism is “an ideology that seeks to privilege conservative Christianity in education, law, and public policy,” said Brockman. Recent efforts by new group the Remnant Alliance seek to see this worldview reflected in classrooms across Texas and beyond. 

The company of a Texas billionaire oilman announces plans to rehabilitate five Venezuelan oil fields just days after Biden put the brakes on sanctions relief. “This will be a test of U.S. sanctions whether they get a license or not,” said Monaldi.

Texas energy demands may outstrip means this summer, though help might be found in green sources. “That extra solar supply, which, of course comes when it’s sunny and when our air conditioners are running most, that provided the difference last summer,” said Cohan.