U.S. immigration enforcement: then and now, there and here

Abstract

This article examines shifts in US border and immigration policing over the last few decades, tracing the transformation of policing from an outwards-looking power located at the territorial margins of the state to an inwards-looking power focused on immigrant populations. I review five components of the militarization of US-Mexico border policy, then outline the recent expansion of enforcement to the US interior. Rather than marking a distinct break between policing regimes, I instead show that many of the same practices remain central to US immigration control. Heeding Paasi’s social-process oriented conceptualization of territory, the article closes with a reflection on borders and bordering.