The US-Mexico Checkpoint
The US-Mexico Checkpoint
This chapter describes the checkpoint border regime at the US-Mexico border. The function of the checkpoint is not to juridically enclose and link increasingly large and unpredictable oscillatory flows, but rather to establish a kind of functional economic equilibrium between rapidly expanding and contracting flows of migration. The checkpoint balances the desire for precarious labor with the reproduction of an atmosphere of perceived insecurity and danger. The historically privileged sites of immigration enforcement—fences, walls, ports of entry, detention cells, and so on—are no longer sufficient to ensure the continuous control and rapid redirection of migrant flows required under contemporary circumstances. The US-Mexico border must now be deployable at any point whatever throughout society.
Keywords: RFID, passports, biopower, security, deportation, criminalization, migration, checkpoint
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