Border Control/Death Final Exam Already Passed
Death Rate and the Border
- Deaths start climbing after implementation of Operation Blockade
- Deaths were dropping since 1987, before Prevention through Deterrence
- Prevention through Deterrence produced about 160 "extra" deaths per year, acc...
Border Control/Death Final Exam Already
Passed
Death Rate and the Border
- Deaths start climbing after implementation of Operation Blockade
- Deaths were dropping since 1987, before Prevention through Deterrence
- Prevention through Deterrence produced about 160 "extra" deaths per year, according to 2003
research
--- "Smoke and Mirrors" (Douglas Massey) - BP wastes a lot of money because they aren't efficient.
What we get out of BP: symbols (idea of BP)
Why Congress Supported Guest Worker Program
Drawback for Congress to draft a new immigration bill (providing a path for citizenship), instead have
a guest worker program.
Enforcement Context
- Deterrence strategy was not implemented in a neutral setting
- Government officials and politicians traveled to the US-Mexico border in the 1990s to blame
unauthorized migrants for social problems and for creating a national security risk
- The social construction of the border as lawless vilified unauthorized migrants as the principal
menace
- Through the production of a public relations video titled Border Under Siege, BP officials themselves
played a direct role in casting the border as being "invaded" by "aliens"
--- Pete Wilson (governor candidate of California) used border to case himself as a savior, that he
would protect California. In his election he supported a strong policy to restrict immigrants, require
people to report those they thought were undocumented. He won re-election. After he won, he asked
Congress for an immigrant worker program (not scared of migration, but scared of migration they
can't control)
Enforcement seen as Moral Duty
- From this contextual perspective, enforcement became more than a duty; it became a moral activity
--- Ex. from movie at the beginning of the semester were BP wouldn't send an agent to the man that
was dying in the desert because they were all inspecting cars at the checkpoint
- As a moral tool, enforcement could not be compromised, not even in the face of mounting migrant
deaths
- Yet, further research is needed to determine how much lower-rank BP agents actually identified
with the view that portrayed unauthorized migrants as a menace and invaders
--- Congress survey - BP agents say they need more technology and more agents (only 1% said they
need a wall). DHS responded by saying every BP agent supports the wall
- Border enforcement officials made deliberate plans to blend their bureaucratic identity with local
communities through civic activities
--- BP used to be all white men. There was little concern for what Mexican-American communities
thought of BP
--- Now, BP uses PR to show that BP and local communities are one in the same
,Enforcement to "enhance quality of life"
- The border enforcement bureaucracy also began to add to its publicized objectives the
enhancement of the quality of life in border regions
- With the border "under operational control," the economic vitality would increase in border regions
as crime and social service costs decreased
--- More available jobs, lower social service cost (message is that migrants are coming to the US to get
on welfare)
- Through this objective and its civic participation, the border enforcement bureaucracy projected its
image as an ethical force of the community
US border in the 1800s
US in the 1800s used to put border makers (hundreds of miles apart from each other - not an actual
wall)
Pregnancy and border crossing
5 women who were at a shelter in Tijuana tried to cross again. One was pregnant. After crossing into
the US they were apprehended and the woman gave birth. She was deported to Mexico with her baby
before she was able to register her baby as a US citizen.
Causality and Blameability
- Human rights advocates and other critics have attributed causality and blame to the border
enforcement bureaucracy for the hundreds of deaths annually of unauthorized border crossers
- However, a wide spectrum of causality and blameability exists of bureaucracies that implement
potentially harmful social policies
Causal Relations
- Causal relations vary by type and degree
- Some social conditions have a mechanical relationship, so that condition B can only occur if
condition A occurs first
- Migrant deaths in the border area, however, do not share a rigid, mechanical relationship with the
deterrence strategy b/c:
--- 1) Migrant deaths in border areas occurred for at least a decade prior to the existence of the
strategy (albeit with a smaller percent of desert deaths)
--- 2) Only a small percentage of migrants die after attempting illegal entry
Causal Correlations
- Statistical association characterizes a second type of causality
- Statistical correlations can be found between migrant deaths and elements of the deterrence
strategy
- However, the facts that migrant deaths have occurred without the strategy and that the deaths have
fluctuated significantly without similar fluctuations in enforcement makes this causal relationship less
than a prime characterization
Interactional causality
, - A third type of causality can be characterized as interactional causality, in which conditions or actors
have mutual influence on each other
- Unauthorized migration (and politicians, anti-immigrant sentiments) stimulated the planning and
implementation of the deterrence strategy, which in turn stimulated the redirection of the
unauthorized migrant flow
- Interactional causality has two analytical advantages for understanding the causality of migrant
deaths:
--- 1) There is no strict, unidirectional influence in which actors have an exclusively dependent or
independent role
--- 2) Since both border agents and unauthorized migrants have influence in the interaction, implicitly
they both have the property of reflectivity
Reflectivity
- Through reflectivity migrants attempt to escape the influence of the deterrence strategy
--- Go on a travel visa and overstay. In order to get visa, have to prove that you will come back (have
to have $3000 in bank account, or other things like that to prove you will return home)
--- Invitations to wedding or graduation - use fake invite
--- These are about a different moral unit: the family (whatever it takes to keep the family together)
- Means having agency/consciousness and using it to strategize in your life
- Many succeed in crossing given the reported low migrant death rate for the high rate of
unauthorized crossings
Increased death risk
- Interactional causality does not exculpate the border enforcement bureaucracy for redirecting
migrants to life-threatening environments
--- Does not mean that BP is excused for their policies
- The bureaucracy reduced safer crossing points
- And, as designed, increased the risks of those who follow through with their plans to cross
- Given the high volume of unauthorized migration, more deaths were certain to occur
Send "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" (Warren Zevon song title)
- US BP strategy - basically is send lawyers, guns and money
- More federal prosecutors
--- Sessions wants first time crossing to be raised to a felony crime
- More guns to the border
--- Trump wants to triple the size of ICE
- More money for border enforcement
Why death wasn't an issue when Prevention through Deterrence was created
Rodriguez friend who was one of the Prevention through Deterrence planners - Sociologist. Other
planners: BP agents, INS officials appointed by Clinton. They put all their faith on the BP chiefs
because they knew the border. BP chiefs never brought up the issue of death (because it wasn't an
issue until Rodriguez's study).
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