Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

An Introduction to the Multiple US–Mexico Borders

Abstract In this, a thematic issue on multiple borders, our goal is to unpack the lengthy border to explore differences and similarities from the western industrialized Tijuana–San Diego Pacific coastal region, the de-populated Sonora–Arizona desert, the densely settled global manufacturing central Paso del Norte site, and the agricultural spaces and smaller urban settlements of South Texas–northeastern Mexico. This thematic volume includes seven articles that not only reveal contextual differences at “multiple” US–Mexico borders, but also the overarching themes of violence and dehumanization from media and policy constructions—that are derived from constant trans-border flows, both legal and illicit. The relevant differences complicate public policy impacts, social and environmental issues, and action strategies for the future, posing intriguing new research with implications for borderlands in other world regions. In unpacking the lengthy US–Mexico border to analyze differences, we hope to stimulate thinking about other borderlands around the world for which overgeneralizations may have also been made, just as with the research on the US–Mexico borderlands.

The Phenomenology of Perception and Fear: Security and the Reality of the US–Mexico Border

Abstract This article uses an interpretive phenomenological approach to examine the deployment (and perception) of fear in the US–Mexico border region. This region is currently perceived by “others” to be under siege by drug-trafficking organizations, terrorists and undocumented immigrants. However, the inhabitants of this region experience a vastly different reality that is far-removed from the rhetoric of fear often used by politicians to identify and define the inhabitants. In many instances, the effects of border violence are exaggerated in ways that benefit political and corporate interests; moreover, this specific tactic operates to squeeze and constrain efforts aimed at civic engagement and public input in policies. We expose perceptions and misperceptions on issues related to fear, and explain the ways in which fear can be expropriated as a social construct that prevents meaningful political dialogue.

The mathematics of Mexico–US migration and US immigration policy

This article analyses some of the ‘numbers’ behind the migration phenomenon and immigration policy design in the USA. The principal aim of this study is to assess the use of quantitative data and analyses, migration statistics and the mass media to support the passage (or justify the failure) of recent key initiatives that affect undocumented or illegal immigration in the USA, in particular immigration originating in Mexico. The study concludes that the misuse of numbers, the production of media spectacles that present illegal immigrants as quite harmful for the US economy and society, and the politicisation of the immigration process in general, have had a major impact on recent failed attempts to reform the dysfunctional US immigration system. These factors also influenced the passage of Arizonas SB 1070 in 2010, as well as the recent passage of other anti-immigrant legislation in more US states. Overall, the ‘mathematics’ of Mexico–US migration is not always reliable. Some questionable numbers have been recently used to justify inappropriate and ineffective migration policies.

Violence on the "Forgotten" Border: Mexico's Drug War, the State, and the Paramilitarization of Organized Crime in Tamaulipas in a "New Democratic Era"

Abstract This article explains the high levels of violence on the Mexican side of the Texas–Tamaulipas border. The study finds that the recent violence increase in this region—referred to as the “forgotten border” in this writing—has been the result of the following factors: a new configuration of organized crime in a new democratic era, the separation of the Zetas from the Gulf Cartel, the security strategy of the Mexican government, a stagnant economy, and rampant corruption. These conditions have contributed to the gradual loss of the “monopoly” of the legitimate use of violence by the State in some regions of Mexico, particularly in Tamaulipas.

Workers, parties and a “New Deal:” A comparative analysis of corporatist alliances in Mexico, and the United States, 1910–1940

Abstract Mexico experienced the twentieth century’s first social revolution, a decade of struggle from which emerged a new political regime – a post-revolutionary authoritarian or single-party state one – with President Lázaro Cárdenas as leader by 1934. This post-revolutionary creation included organized labor and peasants, a strong interventionist state and a hegemonic party. Cárdenas’ U.S. counterpart, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, too, was leading dramatic ‘New Deal’ institutional and political revolution in the 1930s and 1940s that spawned a new order of expanded federal government, a renovated Democratic Party, and new movements and interest groups, notably, labor. Both nations featured the same major actors: the state, political parties, and organized labor. Both presidents calculated that preserving labor alliances was crucial for formation and legitimization of a new political order, for maintaining conditions conducive to private-sector investment and economic growth, and for political and economic crisis management. Labor’s growing role reshuffled corporatist alliances within and between international neighbors. This study places Mexico and the United States in comparative context in the early twentieth century and analyzes elite control and inclusion of organized labor in transformation of political landscapes in two different political regimes – a democratic one couched in an established constitution and a post-revolutionary authoritarian one born of a bloody upheaval.

Desigualdades y flujos globales en la frontera noreste de México: los efectos de la migración, el comercio, energéticos y crimen organizado transnacional

The present paper analyzes the effects of global flows on socioeconomic inequality in the four Mexican states bordering Texas: Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila and Chihuahua. In particular, this work analyzes the effects of migration, cross-border trade, extraction and trade of hydrocarbons, and transnational organized crime. The results of the present research clearly show higher levels of inequality in the municipalities of greater economic dynamism and presence of (formal, informal or illicit) global flows. Transnational organized crime has a strong presence in these states of the Mexican Republic and seems to operate in the same direction than the rest of formal global flows, that is, reinforcing inequalities within these Mexican states, as well as inequalities between Mexican and Texan border cities.