Politics of Immigration, Borders, and Belonging in the Contemporary Us South.

Gloria A. Loftin

Sociology 101

Dr. James Blake

April 17, 2012

Bringing Back the (B) order: Post-9/11 Politics of Immigration, Borders, and Belonging in the Contemporary US South.

Winders, Jamie. Social Forces, Nov2007, Vol. 39 I, p920-942, 23p; DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00563.x

The sky was a magnificent blue, the air crisp without a cloud in the sky. The trees in the north were just turning. It was a beautiful fall day in New York, Washington D. C., and Southern Pennsylvania. People shopped, ate, loved, fought and dreamed. It was the day that everything we thought and felt changed. It was the day the Twin Towers came down, the Pentagon was attacked and a plane full of heroes died on a grassy meadow in Pennsylvania. The U.S. lost over 3,600 lives on that cool September, on the 11th day of the year, 2001.

During the first week in September the Federal Bureau investigation (FBI) issued a warning that there was a specific, credible, yet unconfirmed threat of a terrorist attack in New York and Washington D.C. In New York City everything became hyped-up and the security apparatus came out full throttle. The United States then realized that the borders of the country were at risk. Only after Sept 11 did the U.S. begin to give attention to building walls along the borders of Mexico. Since then, crossing the U.S. borders has gotten more difficult, but not impossible.

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In 1993 there were a little more than 3000 border agents assigned to the U.S. Mexican border. In 2002 the number climbed to 9,500. In the same seven year period, "Illegal" immigration increased from an estimated 4200 per year to 6400. A 50% increase in "illegal crossings" caused the U.S.to increase control of the borders with Mexico to try to stop illegal immigrants. Hundreds of the miles of wall were erected. More personnel were sent to the borders to patrol around the clock.

Why hasn't this "stepped up" surveillance and tripling of border agents stemmed the flow of "illegal" border crossing? Increased border surveillance has not worked because the 2600 mile border is impossible to fully secure. It has always been and will always be penetrable. Like all police work, enforcement is a selective process. Concerns about terrorism, drug and people smuggling has concentrated U.S. enforcement at major border crossings. The more isolated portions of the border are still very porous. Its only success has been to hamper the flow of border commerce. Merchants have seen a drastic decline of Mexicans crossing to buy goods since 9-11. They are