Member States

Member States

Though the Border Governors occasionally convened since the early 1960’s, today’s process was not formalized until 1980. The first Border Governors Conference was held in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, June 26-27, 1980 with the State of Chihuahua as host and the State of New Mexico as co-host.  The first conference topics were: Tourism, Ecology, Cultural Exchange, Energy and Commerce, Pollution, Agriculture, Maquilas and Industrial Development and Interchange in Undocumented Workers. The Conference ended with the signing of a Declaration of Friendship by all 10 governors.

Thereafter an attempt was made to hold an annual conference alternating the site between a U.S. and Mexican location. However the V conference failed to take place in 1985, while the VI took place two years later in 1987 and the VII in 1989. Since 1989, the Conference successfully maintained an annual agenda until XIII when only one U.S. governor confirmed his attendance, leaving Mexican states to hold their own conference in Creel, Chihuahua.

Conference attendance reached a peak of 1,200 attendees at the XII Conference in Phoenix. In 1995 by agreement of all 10 governors and in preparation for Santa Fe’s XIV Conference the format was modified to a conference of 110 persons (10 governors, 20 governor’s representatives and 80 state delegates) permitting real quality time among the governors for them to get acquainted, as well as for the representatives and delegates to discuss border issues in depth.  There were 4 topic areas of discussion at that conference: Border Crossing Fees, INS User Fees, NAFTA Cross-Border Trucking Provisions, Non-Tariff Trade Barriers and U.S. Consulate Closures in Mexico. Over the years the size and scope of the conference has grown from the five topic areas to today’s 13 Work Tables (listed in the Work Table section).

Since the I conference, the Declaration of Friendship gave way to a Joint Communiqué and subsequent at the XIV conference a Joint Declaration. At the XI Conference in Monterrey, in addition to the Joint Communiqué all 10 governors signed Monterrey Declaration in support of NAFTA. Since that time an important component to the Declaration has been added, the governors addendum section. Additionally in any given year the Governors will sign letters and Memorandums of Understanding, typically addressed to the federal governments of each country, to bring additional scrutiny and importance to a topic they feel is of critical importance to the region, as well as commission strategic research analysis for the benefit of the U.S.-Mexico border region.