Rachel St. John
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141541
- eISBN:
- 9781400838639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141541.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This concluding chapter argues that the power imbalance between the United States and Mexico has been reflected in the politics of border control. Although U.S. and Mexican officials continued to ...
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This concluding chapter argues that the power imbalance between the United States and Mexico has been reflected in the politics of border control. Although U.S. and Mexican officials continued to negotiate bilateral border agreements and cooperative enforcement measures, the twentieth-century border was most influenced by the United States' political and economic agendas as well as the persistent challenges to those goals. From the 1930s through the end of the twentieth century, U.S. border policy primarily focused on encouraging the flow of transborder trade, while regulating the movement of Mexican immigrants and stemming the stream of illegal drugs across the boundary line.Less
This concluding chapter argues that the power imbalance between the United States and Mexico has been reflected in the politics of border control. Although U.S. and Mexican officials continued to negotiate bilateral border agreements and cooperative enforcement measures, the twentieth-century border was most influenced by the United States' political and economic agendas as well as the persistent challenges to those goals. From the 1930s through the end of the twentieth century, U.S. border policy primarily focused on encouraging the flow of transborder trade, while regulating the movement of Mexican immigrants and stemming the stream of illegal drugs across the boundary line.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Reviewing the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States, this chapter reveals that immigrants are lured by compelling economic opportunities and higher wages in the United States, and ...
More
Reviewing the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States, this chapter reveals that immigrants are lured by compelling economic opportunities and higher wages in the United States, and that no means of border enforcement ever undertaken will deter immigrants driven to improve their own lives and especially their families’ futures. Debunking myths of welfare-seeking and criminal undocumented immigrants, this chapter describes the virtue of immigrants, undocumented and documented, who have supplied vital labor in U.S. industries for decades. These labor entries include the wartime Bracero Program, and continue in the era of ramped-up U.S.-Mexico border enforcement that imperils the lives of undocumented border crossers.Less
Reviewing the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States, this chapter reveals that immigrants are lured by compelling economic opportunities and higher wages in the United States, and that no means of border enforcement ever undertaken will deter immigrants driven to improve their own lives and especially their families’ futures. Debunking myths of welfare-seeking and criminal undocumented immigrants, this chapter describes the virtue of immigrants, undocumented and documented, who have supplied vital labor in U.S. industries for decades. These labor entries include the wartime Bracero Program, and continue in the era of ramped-up U.S.-Mexico border enforcement that imperils the lives of undocumented border crossers.
Rachel St. John
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141541
- eISBN:
- 9781400838639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141541.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This introductory chapter provides a history of the U.S.–Mexico border. Long before the border existed as a physical or legal reality it began to take form in the minds of Mexicans and Americans who ...
More
This introductory chapter provides a history of the U.S.–Mexico border. Long before the border existed as a physical or legal reality it began to take form in the minds of Mexicans and Americans who looked to maps of North America to think about what their republics were and what they might someday become. Their competing territorial visions brought the United States and Mexico to war in 1846. Less than two years later, the border emerged from the crucible of that war. With U.S. soldiers occupying the Mexican capital, a group of Mexican and American diplomats redrew the map of North America. In the east, they chose the Rio Grande, settling a decade-old debate about Texas's southern border and dividing the communities that had long lived along the river. In the west, they did something different; they drew a line across a map and conjured up an entirely new space where there had not been one before.Less
This introductory chapter provides a history of the U.S.–Mexico border. Long before the border existed as a physical or legal reality it began to take form in the minds of Mexicans and Americans who looked to maps of North America to think about what their republics were and what they might someday become. Their competing territorial visions brought the United States and Mexico to war in 1846. Less than two years later, the border emerged from the crucible of that war. With U.S. soldiers occupying the Mexican capital, a group of Mexican and American diplomats redrew the map of North America. In the east, they chose the Rio Grande, settling a decade-old debate about Texas's southern border and dividing the communities that had long lived along the river. In the west, they did something different; they drew a line across a map and conjured up an entirely new space where there had not been one before.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter examines lessons from 150 years of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, as the basis for later chapters’ construction of a framework for comprehensive border reform.. Particularly, these ...
More
This chapter examines lessons from 150 years of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, as the basis for later chapters’ construction of a framework for comprehensive border reform.. Particularly, these experiences demonstrate the futility of supply-side enforcement that concentrates on interdiction, as well as illustrate the U.S. history of unilateral policymaking on subjects that spur border crossings and on the crossers themselves. In contrast to interdiction, reducing demand for cheap labor and illegal drugs may hold more promise for controlling border movement, as the Prohibition experience confirmed when legalization of alcohol in the U.S. eliminated the market for Mexican trafficking. Further, the supply-side approach of economic vitalization measures in Mexico, in contrast to tactics of interdiction that have dominated the U.S. arsenal, holds promise for easing the migratory pressures that sometimes tear Mexican families apart, and could even alter the climate in which U.S. sexual predators take advantage of economic desperation to find child victims in Mexico.Less
This chapter examines lessons from 150 years of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, as the basis for later chapters’ construction of a framework for comprehensive border reform.. Particularly, these experiences demonstrate the futility of supply-side enforcement that concentrates on interdiction, as well as illustrate the U.S. history of unilateral policymaking on subjects that spur border crossings and on the crossers themselves. In contrast to interdiction, reducing demand for cheap labor and illegal drugs may hold more promise for controlling border movement, as the Prohibition experience confirmed when legalization of alcohol in the U.S. eliminated the market for Mexican trafficking. Further, the supply-side approach of economic vitalization measures in Mexico, in contrast to tactics of interdiction that have dominated the U.S. arsenal, holds promise for easing the migratory pressures that sometimes tear Mexican families apart, and could even alter the climate in which U.S. sexual predators take advantage of economic desperation to find child victims in Mexico.
Rachel St. John
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141541
- eISBN:
- 9781400838639
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141541.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.–Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the ...
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This book details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.–Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the first decades of the twentieth century. The book explores how this boundary changed from a mere line on a map to a clearly marked and heavily regulated divide between the United States and Mexico. Focusing on the desert border to the west of the Rio Grande, the book explains the origins of the modern border and places the line at the center of a transnational history of expanding capitalism and state power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moving across local, regional, and national scales, the book shows how government officials, Native American raiders, ranchers, railroad builders, miners, investors, immigrants, and smugglers contributed to the rise of state power on the border and developed strategies to navigate the increasingly regulated landscape. Over the border's history, the U.S. and Mexican states gradually developed an expanding array of official laws, ad hoc arrangements, government agents, and physical barriers that did not close the line, but made it a flexible barrier that restricted the movement of some people, goods, and animals without impeding others. By the 1930s, their efforts had created the foundations of the modern border control apparatus. Drawing on extensive research in U.S. and Mexican archives, the book weaves together a transnational history of how an undistinguished strip of land became the significant and symbolic space of state power and national definition that we know today.Less
This book details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.–Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the first decades of the twentieth century. The book explores how this boundary changed from a mere line on a map to a clearly marked and heavily regulated divide between the United States and Mexico. Focusing on the desert border to the west of the Rio Grande, the book explains the origins of the modern border and places the line at the center of a transnational history of expanding capitalism and state power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moving across local, regional, and national scales, the book shows how government officials, Native American raiders, ranchers, railroad builders, miners, investors, immigrants, and smugglers contributed to the rise of state power on the border and developed strategies to navigate the increasingly regulated landscape. Over the border's history, the U.S. and Mexican states gradually developed an expanding array of official laws, ad hoc arrangements, government agents, and physical barriers that did not close the line, but made it a flexible barrier that restricted the movement of some people, goods, and animals without impeding others. By the 1930s, their efforts had created the foundations of the modern border control apparatus. Drawing on extensive research in U.S. and Mexican archives, the book weaves together a transnational history of how an undistinguished strip of land became the significant and symbolic space of state power and national definition that we know today.
Ananda Rose
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199890934
- eISBN:
- 9780199949793
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890934.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Set in the Sonoran desert, at the U.S.–Mexico border, in the shadow of migrant deaths, this book examines one of the most daunting ethical questions of our time: How should we treat the strangers who ...
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Set in the Sonoran desert, at the U.S.–Mexico border, in the shadow of migrant deaths, this book examines one of the most daunting ethical questions of our time: How should we treat the strangers who have entered the United States illegally? Gathering a mosaic of opinions, from Civil Militia groups, Border Patrol agents, Catholic nuns, interfaith aid workers, left-wing protestors, ranchers, and other ordinary citizens in southern Arizona, the book provides a stage for different ideological voices to be heard concerning the issue of illegal immigration in the United States. The book focuses on the tragedy of migrant deaths in the Tucson Sector of Arizona resulting from heightened border security measures that have pushed migrants into more remote and perilous areas of southern Arizona. An ethnographic investigation, the book objectively juxtaposes the viewpoints of interfaith activists who turn to a biblically inspired model of hospitality, which stresses love of stranger and a “borderless” sort of compassion, with the viewpoints of law enforcement personnel and supporters, who advocate notions of safety, security and strict respect of international borders, ultimately challenging readers to consider the moral complexities of today’s immigration debate.Less
Set in the Sonoran desert, at the U.S.–Mexico border, in the shadow of migrant deaths, this book examines one of the most daunting ethical questions of our time: How should we treat the strangers who have entered the United States illegally? Gathering a mosaic of opinions, from Civil Militia groups, Border Patrol agents, Catholic nuns, interfaith aid workers, left-wing protestors, ranchers, and other ordinary citizens in southern Arizona, the book provides a stage for different ideological voices to be heard concerning the issue of illegal immigration in the United States. The book focuses on the tragedy of migrant deaths in the Tucson Sector of Arizona resulting from heightened border security measures that have pushed migrants into more remote and perilous areas of southern Arizona. An ethnographic investigation, the book objectively juxtaposes the viewpoints of interfaith activists who turn to a biblically inspired model of hospitality, which stresses love of stranger and a “borderless” sort of compassion, with the viewpoints of law enforcement personnel and supporters, who advocate notions of safety, security and strict respect of international borders, ultimately challenging readers to consider the moral complexities of today’s immigration debate.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Completing the discussion of illicit and law-bending motivations for U.S. resident “runs for the border,” this chapter discusses a variety of additional lures in the history of southbound border ...
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Completing the discussion of illicit and law-bending motivations for U.S. resident “runs for the border,” this chapter discusses a variety of additional lures in the history of southbound border crossings that stem from differences in the laws of the United States and Mexico. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, the ready availability of no-fault divorces in Mexico, in contrast to strict standards then prevailing in many U.S. jurisdictions, drew spouses across the U.S.-Mexico border to obtain a quickie Mexican divorce. Border runs also sought relatively cheap or experimental pharmaceuticals from Mexican dealers, and low-cost and non-traditional medical procedures.Less
Completing the discussion of illicit and law-bending motivations for U.S. resident “runs for the border,” this chapter discusses a variety of additional lures in the history of southbound border crossings that stem from differences in the laws of the United States and Mexico. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, the ready availability of no-fault divorces in Mexico, in contrast to strict standards then prevailing in many U.S. jurisdictions, drew spouses across the U.S.-Mexico border to obtain a quickie Mexican divorce. Border runs also sought relatively cheap or experimental pharmaceuticals from Mexican dealers, and low-cost and non-traditional medical procedures.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0014
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Most of the contentious debate on U.S.-Mexico border crossings focuses on northbound crossings, but this chapter urges consideration of reverse traffic from the United States into Mexico as detailed ...
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Most of the contentious debate on U.S.-Mexico border crossings focuses on northbound crossings, but this chapter urges consideration of reverse traffic from the United States into Mexico as detailed historically and at present in this study. The chapter begins the articulation of a comprehensive border policy for southbound crossings, particularly for weapons trafficking to drug cartels and for U.S. corporate entries, suggesting how Mexico might better encourage a shift in the U.S. presence and investments away from the borderland maquiladoras and beach tourist havens, and into the terrain devastated by NAFTA and other economic factors.Less
Most of the contentious debate on U.S.-Mexico border crossings focuses on northbound crossings, but this chapter urges consideration of reverse traffic from the United States into Mexico as detailed historically and at present in this study. The chapter begins the articulation of a comprehensive border policy for southbound crossings, particularly for weapons trafficking to drug cartels and for U.S. corporate entries, suggesting how Mexico might better encourage a shift in the U.S. presence and investments away from the borderland maquiladoras and beach tourist havens, and into the terrain devastated by NAFTA and other economic factors.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter serves as a prelude to discussions of today’s economic motivations for northbound border crossings involving the delivery of illicit drugs and cheap labor to feed U.S. addictions to ...
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This chapter serves as a prelude to discussions of today’s economic motivations for northbound border crossings involving the delivery of illicit drugs and cheap labor to feed U.S. addictions to both. In similar fashion, Prohibition-era rumrunners funneled liquor across the U.S.-Mexico border to U.S. destinations, earning enormous profits and demonstrating the futility of supply-side enforcement against economically motivated crossings. Only the legalization of alcohol in the U.S. stymied liquor trafficking from Mexico into the United States.Less
This chapter serves as a prelude to discussions of today’s economic motivations for northbound border crossings involving the delivery of illicit drugs and cheap labor to feed U.S. addictions to both. In similar fashion, Prohibition-era rumrunners funneled liquor across the U.S.-Mexico border to U.S. destinations, earning enormous profits and demonstrating the futility of supply-side enforcement against economically motivated crossings. Only the legalization of alcohol in the U.S. stymied liquor trafficking from Mexico into the United States.
C. J. Alvarez
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226277646
- eISBN:
- 9780226277813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226277813.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter examines the establishment of the United States-Mexico border, not just as a cartographic construction, but as a joint production of cooperative policing. As U.S.-Mexico relations ...
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This chapter examines the establishment of the United States-Mexico border, not just as a cartographic construction, but as a joint production of cooperative policing. As U.S.-Mexico relations deepened and became more complex in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the borderland transformed into a space of bilateral, if sometimes grudging, consent. By focusing on U.S.-Mexico military campaigns against Apaches and U.S. attempts to quell Mexican political dissidents on American soil, an image emerges of a fledgling bilateral policing apparatus, one in which the police power of both countries is pooled, borrowed, and amplified.Less
This chapter examines the establishment of the United States-Mexico border, not just as a cartographic construction, but as a joint production of cooperative policing. As U.S.-Mexico relations deepened and became more complex in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the borderland transformed into a space of bilateral, if sometimes grudging, consent. By focusing on U.S.-Mexico military campaigns against Apaches and U.S. attempts to quell Mexican political dissidents on American soil, an image emerges of a fledgling bilateral policing apparatus, one in which the police power of both countries is pooled, borrowed, and amplified.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0013
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Tackling the other contentious border issue today, this chapter articulates the facet of the proposed harm reduction agenda that sweeps aside the current protocol in which undocumented immigration, ...
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Tackling the other contentious border issue today, this chapter articulates the facet of the proposed harm reduction agenda that sweeps aside the current protocol in which undocumented immigration, drug trafficking, and the amorphous terrorist threat define our U.S.-Mexico border agenda and push us toward militarizing the border to no avail in stopping entries. The drug reform proposal couples decriminalization of certain less harmful drugs with an increased regulatory emphasis on the demand side in the form of funding addiction and treatment programs.Less
Tackling the other contentious border issue today, this chapter articulates the facet of the proposed harm reduction agenda that sweeps aside the current protocol in which undocumented immigration, drug trafficking, and the amorphous terrorist threat define our U.S.-Mexico border agenda and push us toward militarizing the border to no avail in stopping entries. The drug reform proposal couples decriminalization of certain less harmful drugs with an increased regulatory emphasis on the demand side in the form of funding addiction and treatment programs.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0015
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This final chapter addresses the issue of synchronization—whether and when the laws of the United States and Mexico are best aligned in areas that induce border crossings. Among the laws discussed ...
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This final chapter addresses the issue of synchronization—whether and when the laws of the United States and Mexico are best aligned in areas that induce border crossings. Among the laws discussed are those related to gambling, prostitution, abortion, the death penalty, and the legal drinking age. Regardless of whether all such laws are aligned, the United States and Mexico’s increasingly interconnected economies and cultures suggest that the U.S.-Mexico border is better envisioned as an open door than as a walled battleground.Less
This final chapter addresses the issue of synchronization—whether and when the laws of the United States and Mexico are best aligned in areas that induce border crossings. Among the laws discussed are those related to gambling, prostitution, abortion, the death penalty, and the legal drinking age. Regardless of whether all such laws are aligned, the United States and Mexico’s increasingly interconnected economies and cultures suggest that the U.S.-Mexico border is better envisioned as an open door than as a walled battleground.
James David Nichols
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056036
- eISBN:
- 9780813053806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056036.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Scholars have long suggested that nineteenth-century runaway slaves turned the U.S.-Mexico border into a line of freedom. However, as this chapter argues, such an interpretation of the border is ...
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Scholars have long suggested that nineteenth-century runaway slaves turned the U.S.-Mexico border into a line of freedom. However, as this chapter argues, such an interpretation of the border is somewhat problematic. A closer examination of the history of northern Tamaulipas explains why. From 1820 onward, African Americans began to arrive to that region in search of freedom and a changed racial milieu, but this process was deeply fraught. U.S. American jurisprudence could continue to affect Mexican space formally and informally from the outside, greatly troubling Mexican sovereignty and its foreign relations in the process. Hence, the freedom found by African Americans in Mexico—guaranteed by Mexican law—was never particularly secure in practice. This chapter builds upon the previous chapter and provides an in-depth analysis of a specific case study of fugitive slaves’ struggles for freedom in the Texas-Mexico borderlands.Less
Scholars have long suggested that nineteenth-century runaway slaves turned the U.S.-Mexico border into a line of freedom. However, as this chapter argues, such an interpretation of the border is somewhat problematic. A closer examination of the history of northern Tamaulipas explains why. From 1820 onward, African Americans began to arrive to that region in search of freedom and a changed racial milieu, but this process was deeply fraught. U.S. American jurisprudence could continue to affect Mexican space formally and informally from the outside, greatly troubling Mexican sovereignty and its foreign relations in the process. Hence, the freedom found by African Americans in Mexico—guaranteed by Mexican law—was never particularly secure in practice. This chapter builds upon the previous chapter and provides an in-depth analysis of a specific case study of fugitive slaves’ struggles for freedom in the Texas-Mexico borderlands.
David A. Shirk
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804781589
- eISBN:
- 9780804784474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804781589.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter deals with the theoretical dimensions of the state in relation to its borders, focusing on the U.S.-Mexican border and how border violence is connected to state power. Aside from violent ...
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This chapter deals with the theoretical dimensions of the state in relation to its borders, focusing on the U.S.-Mexican border and how border violence is connected to state power. Aside from violent criminal activity by drug cartels and transnational gangs, border violence has recently characterized the U.S.-Mexican borderlands ranging from street-level gang violence to robbery, brutality against women, and violence and hate crimes against immigrants. The chapter shows that U.S. and Mexican state responses to these phenomena have not only been inept and ineffectual in most cases, but also contributed to the maladies affecting the border region. Thus, Mexico and the United States, and states in general, must tackle these transborder problems by looking beyond unilateral and primarily border-focused solutions. In order to better manage contemporary border violence, this chapter stresses the need for neighboring countries to leverage and employ the same processes of integration that appear to be undermining the state.Less
This chapter deals with the theoretical dimensions of the state in relation to its borders, focusing on the U.S.-Mexican border and how border violence is connected to state power. Aside from violent criminal activity by drug cartels and transnational gangs, border violence has recently characterized the U.S.-Mexican borderlands ranging from street-level gang violence to robbery, brutality against women, and violence and hate crimes against immigrants. The chapter shows that U.S. and Mexican state responses to these phenomena have not only been inept and ineffectual in most cases, but also contributed to the maladies affecting the border region. Thus, Mexico and the United States, and states in general, must tackle these transborder problems by looking beyond unilateral and primarily border-focused solutions. In order to better manage contemporary border violence, this chapter stresses the need for neighboring countries to leverage and employ the same processes of integration that appear to be undermining the state.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Reviewing the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States, this chapter reveals that immigrants are lured by compelling economic opportunities and higher wages in the United States, and ...
More
Reviewing the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States, this chapter reveals that immigrants are lured by compelling economic opportunities and higher wages in the United States, and that no means of border enforcement ever undertaken will deter immigrants driven to improve their own lives and especially their families’ futures. Debunking myths of welfare-seeking and criminal undocumented immigrants, this chapter describes the virtue of immigrants, undocumented and documented, who have supplied vital labor in U.S. industries for decades. These labor entries include the wartime Bracero Program, and continue in the era of ramped-up U.S.-Mexico border enforcement that imperils the lives of undocumented border crossers.Less
Reviewing the history of immigration from Mexico to the United States, this chapter reveals that immigrants are lured by compelling economic opportunities and higher wages in the United States, and that no means of border enforcement ever undertaken will deter immigrants driven to improve their own lives and especially their families’ futures. Debunking myths of welfare-seeking and criminal undocumented immigrants, this chapter describes the virtue of immigrants, undocumented and documented, who have supplied vital labor in U.S. industries for decades. These labor entries include the wartime Bracero Program, and continue in the era of ramped-up U.S.-Mexico border enforcement that imperils the lives of undocumented border crossers.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814791257
- eISBN:
- 9780814739136
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814791257.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter opens the discussion of exclusion by addressing public and private efforts to exclude undocumented Latino/a immigrants from local housing and from crossing ranchland in the southwestern ...
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This chapter opens the discussion of exclusion by addressing public and private efforts to exclude undocumented Latino/a immigrants from local housing and from crossing ranchland in the southwestern states along the U.S.-Mexico border. Public efforts include those of several U.S. cities to prohibit rentals to undocumented immigrants, as well as to restrict the presence in the community of Latino/a day laborers soliciting work. Private efforts include those of southwestern ranchers and their supporters who wield the legal doctrine of trespass to legally and physically exclude transitory immigrant crossings.Less
This chapter opens the discussion of exclusion by addressing public and private efforts to exclude undocumented Latino/a immigrants from local housing and from crossing ranchland in the southwestern states along the U.S.-Mexico border. Public efforts include those of several U.S. cities to prohibit rentals to undocumented immigrants, as well as to restrict the presence in the community of Latino/a day laborers soliciting work. Private efforts include those of southwestern ranchers and their supporters who wield the legal doctrine of trespass to legally and physically exclude transitory immigrant crossings.
Ananda Rose
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199890934
- eISBN:
- 9780199949793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890934.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This introduction lies out the central dilemma at the heart of the book: migrant death and suffering at the U.S.–Mexico border. It presents an overview of the causes behind these deaths, including ...
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This introduction lies out the central dilemma at the heart of the book: migrant death and suffering at the U.S.–Mexico border. It presents an overview of the causes behind these deaths, including how U.S. border security measures have created a deadly funnel effect for migrants, and how a confluence of illegal smuggling operations, combined with the U.S. demand for cheap labor, have led to increased danger for migrants. The core ethical questions of the book are presented: Is it a human right to migrate according to need? Or is it a human right for citizens of a sovereign nation to be able to monitor and control their borders? How might a reasonable balance be struck between true compassion and suitable law that guarantees the safety and dignity of all people?Less
This introduction lies out the central dilemma at the heart of the book: migrant death and suffering at the U.S.–Mexico border. It presents an overview of the causes behind these deaths, including how U.S. border security measures have created a deadly funnel effect for migrants, and how a confluence of illegal smuggling operations, combined with the U.S. demand for cheap labor, have led to increased danger for migrants. The core ethical questions of the book are presented: Is it a human right to migrate according to need? Or is it a human right for citizens of a sovereign nation to be able to monitor and control their borders? How might a reasonable balance be struck between true compassion and suitable law that guarantees the safety and dignity of all people?
Cate E. Bird
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781683400691
- eISBN:
- 9781683400813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683400691.003.0010
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Methodology and Techniques
This chapter examines the large scale death of migrants in southern Arizona and the reasons why this should be viewed as an extended massacre. This mass violence against migrants is perpetrated by ...
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This chapter examines the large scale death of migrants in southern Arizona and the reasons why this should be viewed as an extended massacre. This mass violence against migrants is perpetrated by the state through U.S. government policies and the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. These policies affect the routes used by migrants, often funnelling them through some of the harshest areas of the Sonoran Desert and resulting in many exposure-related deaths. The funnelling of migrants into dangerous terrain is intentional and aimed at deterring unauthorized migration. In this case, the desert itself is the weapon that is used against the victims.Less
This chapter examines the large scale death of migrants in southern Arizona and the reasons why this should be viewed as an extended massacre. This mass violence against migrants is perpetrated by the state through U.S. government policies and the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. These policies affect the routes used by migrants, often funnelling them through some of the harshest areas of the Sonoran Desert and resulting in many exposure-related deaths. The funnelling of migrants into dangerous terrain is intentional and aimed at deterring unauthorized migration. In this case, the desert itself is the weapon that is used against the victims.
Steven W. Bender
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789520
- eISBN:
- 9780814789537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789520.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This chapter examines lessons from 150 years of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, as the basis for later chapters’ construction of a framework for comprehensive border reform.. Particularly, these ...
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This chapter examines lessons from 150 years of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, as the basis for later chapters’ construction of a framework for comprehensive border reform.. Particularly, these experiences demonstrate the futility of supply-side enforcement that concentrates on interdiction, as well as illustrate the U.S. history of unilateral policymaking on subjects that spur border crossings and on the crossers themselves. In contrast to interdiction, reducing demand for cheap labor and illegal drugs may hold more promise for controlling border movement, as the Prohibition experience confirmed when legalization of alcohol in the U.S. eliminated the market for Mexican trafficking. Further, the supply-side approach of economic vitalization measures in Mexico, in contrast to tactics of interdiction that have dominated the U.S. arsenal, holds promise for easing the migratory pressures that sometimes tear Mexican families apart, and could even alter the climate in which U.S. sexual predators take advantage of economic desperation to find child victims in Mexico.Less
This chapter examines lessons from 150 years of U.S.-Mexico border crossings, as the basis for later chapters’ construction of a framework for comprehensive border reform.. Particularly, these experiences demonstrate the futility of supply-side enforcement that concentrates on interdiction, as well as illustrate the U.S. history of unilateral policymaking on subjects that spur border crossings and on the crossers themselves. In contrast to interdiction, reducing demand for cheap labor and illegal drugs may hold more promise for controlling border movement, as the Prohibition experience confirmed when legalization of alcohol in the U.S. eliminated the market for Mexican trafficking. Further, the supply-side approach of economic vitalization measures in Mexico, in contrast to tactics of interdiction that have dominated the U.S. arsenal, holds promise for easing the migratory pressures that sometimes tear Mexican families apart, and could even alter the climate in which U.S. sexual predators take advantage of economic desperation to find child victims in Mexico.
Julian Lim
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635491
- eISBN:
- 9781469635507
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635491.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter examines the hardening of the border during the 1920s and 1930s, and the more expansive racially restrictive immigration regimes that developed from both sides of the border. As the ...
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This chapter examines the hardening of the border during the 1920s and 1930s, and the more expansive racially restrictive immigration regimes that developed from both sides of the border. As the United States shifted its focus from excluding Chinese immigrants to targeting Mexicans, Mexico enacted its own set of immigration policies to marginalize and bar Chinese and African-American movement to Mexico. Using NAACP papers, government correspondence, and immigration records from both U.S. and Mexican archives, this chapter provides a fresh perspective on the experiences of African Americans in Texas who felt the double blow of exclusion at the U.S.-Mexico border: the exclusions of Jim Crow and Mexico’s indigenismo. Providing a more integrated understanding of Chinese, black, and Mexican experiences at the border, the chapter ultimately emphasizes the shared venture between the Mexican and U.S. nation-states in controlling race, immigration, and the nation during the first half of the twentieth century. As racial ideologies and immigration policies migrated across national boundaries, it became more difficult for racialized bodies to do the same. And not only was their multiracial presence physically marginalized within the landscape of the borderlands, they were removed altogether from the nation’s identity and history.Less
This chapter examines the hardening of the border during the 1920s and 1930s, and the more expansive racially restrictive immigration regimes that developed from both sides of the border. As the United States shifted its focus from excluding Chinese immigrants to targeting Mexicans, Mexico enacted its own set of immigration policies to marginalize and bar Chinese and African-American movement to Mexico. Using NAACP papers, government correspondence, and immigration records from both U.S. and Mexican archives, this chapter provides a fresh perspective on the experiences of African Americans in Texas who felt the double blow of exclusion at the U.S.-Mexico border: the exclusions of Jim Crow and Mexico’s indigenismo. Providing a more integrated understanding of Chinese, black, and Mexican experiences at the border, the chapter ultimately emphasizes the shared venture between the Mexican and U.S. nation-states in controlling race, immigration, and the nation during the first half of the twentieth century. As racial ideologies and immigration policies migrated across national boundaries, it became more difficult for racialized bodies to do the same. And not only was their multiracial presence physically marginalized within the landscape of the borderlands, they were removed altogether from the nation’s identity and history.
