The Jurisdiction Gap: Border Women Fall Through Binational Institutional Silence
Problem Definition
The El Paso/Ciudad Juárez corridor is the most studied natural experiment in cross-border inequality in the Western hemisphere. 6x higher chance of dying in childbirth, an 8:1 income disadvantage, and a 28% chance of lacking health coverage despite formal employment. The causal variable is jurisdiction, not culture or individual choice.
4 million women who live within 50 miles of the border on either side. The US-Mexico border has binational frameworks for air quality (BECC), water (IBWC), and trade (USMCA). It has no framework for the women manufacturing the goods that flow across those same trade corridors.
Root Causes
No binational institutional architecture exists to treat border-region women as a shared population with shared risk exposure
USMCA Chapter 23 Rapid Response Mechanism covers union rights but not worker health coverage or femicide prevention — a gap in treaty scope, not treaty capacity
Femicide classification standards differ between US and Mexican jurisdictions, preventing comparable cross-border data and coordinated response
Maquiladora supply chain labor — predominantly female — lacks cross-border enforcement of the health and safety standards that apply to the end consumer market
US framing of border violence as immigration/security issue and Mexican framing as domestic law enforcement issue creates a policy dead zone neither government claims ownership of