ABSTRACT
Cross-border cooperation in the U.S.-Mexico border region is not a new process; the international boundary between the United States and Mexico, which was finalized in 1854 with the Gadsden Purchase of what is now southern Arizona, has always been considered quite porous and conducive to local cross-border interchanges. For decades cross-border cooperation was mostly local in scope; it was used as the most common strategy in coping with border issues and remoteness from the respective national capitals.
