Vasquez forms bipartisan Southwest Caucus

The caucus will be open to members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah while working to raise awareness and bipartisan support for legislation that addresses issues that impact the southwestern corner of the U.S.

Formation of the caucus comes in a Congress where Democrats and Republicans each hold slim majorities in one legislative chamber, and just a week after lawmakers passed a bipartisan agreement to avert a national debt default and curtail some federal spending.

“This caucus is going to be especially important as Congress finds itself in perpetual gridlock and faces some very important opportunities to act on things such as border security, on things like the protection of public lands and permitting for energy reform and also the opportunities that bring good paying jobs in places like the southwest,” Vasquez said.

“We have infrastructure, we have natural resources, we have trade with our largest trading partner in Mexico. These are things we know them well because we live them every day. We don't just know about them, we grew up in this region and we know them and we also live them and at the same time we know them from a professional perspective as well,” Ciscomani explained.

The two freshmen lawmakers, each elected in tossup House districts, have worked together on legislation to combat opioid trafficking, fix a guest worker program and provide compensation to ranchers who have lost livestock to the Mexican Gray Wolf, which in Arizona and New Mexico receive federal endangered species act protections.

“We came up with this idea together because we found we had more things in common than we have apart, even though we represent different political parties,” Vasquez said.

New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District and Arizona's 6th Congressional District neighbor one another. The 2nd Congressional District includes parts of southeast New Mexico, but the bulk of it is contained in southwest New Mexico and stretches north into western parts of Albuquerque. Arizona’s 6th District is located in southeast Arizona and includes large swathes of national forests.

Vasquez and Ciscomani hope the Caucus can serve as a model for how Congress can be productive.

“In some areas, we are not always going to be aligned but where we do have alignment, we need to grasp onto that, especially in a time like this, and in times like these that can be harder to come around,” Ciscomani said.

One issue the Caucus will be looking to make progress on is the situation on the U.S. border with Mexico. Vasquez and Ciscomani not only represent districts located on the U.S.-Mexican border, but their biographies are inextricably linked to the immigration process.

Vasquez, though born in the U.S., spent a significant part of his childhood in Mexico before returning to the U.S. Ciscomani emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a child.

As caucus members who live on the southern border, and given their roots in both countries, Vasquez and Ciscomani believe they have an obligation to educate and inform their colleagues about the border. They also believe they need to take an active role in formulating a solution that secures the border while finding a way to process arrivals in an orderly and humane way.

Ciscomani explained that seeking agreement where possible can benefit everyone, and help dispel the perception that members of Congress are only out to draw attention to themselves instead of improving lives.

“There may be an idea back home that people come here to just do the kind of stuff that gets you on TV and gets you those sound bites, but these are the things that will actually make a difference for the people back home,” Ciscomani said.