Collateral Damage: El Paso and the Juárez exodus: Are Mexican entrepreneurs and their businesses here to stay?

"There’s no doubt that El Paso, on the north side of the Rio Grande, has reaped economic benefits because of the growing instability in Juárez just to the south. As members of La Red (a newly formed and rapidly growing Mexican businessmens' group in El Paso, of whom seventy percent are U.S. citizens) and other Juarenses move here to escape the violence, they open new businesses, purchase homes and contribute to the city’s coffers.


... the long-term impact remains to be seen. While the influx of Mexican entrepreneurs has added to El Paso’s culinary variety and nightlife scene, no one knows how long they will stay, or how long the crisis in Juárez will continue. 

Bob Cook, president of the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation, says that in the overall equation the harm caused by the violence in Juárez and the recession have outweighed the benefits of the migration of Juarenses into the city.

"(There is) another reason why we need Juárez to be healthy,” Cook says. “The Mexican nationals that have disposable income are more important to El Paso’s economy than the small number of Mexican businesses opening.”

Experts also warn that growing violence and instability in Juárez could eventually cause severe damage to the manufacturing industry that still provides much of the region’s economic strength." Dec. 21, 2010, El Pasa Inc., a website focused on El Paso business news.