We in El Paso and Juarez are literally one community. There's no separation; there's no DMZ; there's no buffer.

We in El Paso and Juarez are literally one community. There's no separation; there's no DMZ; there's no buffer.

Part of the job for me and others from El Paso who live along the border is to dispel the myths about how supposedly dangerous the border is.

In terms of immigration, we're seeing a lot of Democrats and Republicans use the really elastic term, 'Comprehensive Immigration Reform,' and they don't totally understand what that means. For us in El Paso, it's part of a larger discussion about the nature of the border.

Juarez had become a failed city. The mayor of Juarez lived in El Paso. Not only did he not live in his own city, he didn't live in his own country. You had all these kids out of school who didn't want to work because they saw their mothers toiling in jobs for hardly any cash.

El Paso in many ways is the Ellis Island for Mexico and much of Latin America.