Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the 'Illegal Alien' and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary

by Nevins, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780415931052
• ISBN10: 0415931053
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-21
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In 1994, the INS launchedOperation Gatekeeper, the Clinton administration's drastic effort to regain control of the U.S.-Mexico border. However, even as miles of new fence and hundreds of trained agents were added, the border was enjoying unprecedented economic growth. As Joseph Nevins details in this book, the effort has failed to significantly reduce unauthorized immigration, but has undoubtedly contributed to the hardship, and sometimes death, for many unauthorized border crossers. With a journalist's eye for detail, Nevins provides an immensely readable account of what has become an increasingly central concern for developed nations: keeping third world immigrants out.

Author Biography

Joseph Nevins is an accomplished writer and commentator whose work has appeared in The Progressive, The Nation, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He earned his Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA and is currently a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Creation of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary and the Remaking of the United States and Mexico in the Border Region	p. 15
Local Context and the Creation of Difference in the Border Region	p. 39
The Bounding of the United States and the Emergence of Operation Gatekeeper	p. 61
The Ideological Roots of the "Illegal": the "Other" as Threat and the Rise of the Boundary as the Symbol of Protection	p. 95
The Effects and Significance of the Bounding of the United States	p. 123
Nationalism, the Territorial State, and the Construction of Boundary-Related Identities	p. 151
Conclusion: Searching for Security in an Age of Intensifying Globalization	p. 165
Map: The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in Southern California	p. 189
Map: Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands	p. 190
Map: The Territorial Expansion of the United States	p. 191
Map: The Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary	p. 192
Chronology of Selected U.S. Immigration-and Boundary-Related Legislation and Developments	p. 193
Number of Border Patrol Agents Nationally, Fiscal Years 1925-2000	p. 196
Change in Number of Border Patrol Agents Nationally, Fiscal Years 1925-2000	p. 197
Cover from December 1974 Issue of The American Legion Magazine	p. 198
Notes	p. 199
Bibliography	p. 247
Index	p. 275
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