Social Order & the Southern Border

• In Event: New Perspectives on Race and American Political Development

Abstract

This article uses political theory and historiography to contextualize disputes over immigration policy in the southern borderlands arguing the current conflict is a punctuated resurrection of previous themes. Applying a literary analysis demonstrates the power of political rhetoric on constituent decision-making. Framed as a national security issue, Republicans criminalized Latino immigrants. Democrat opposition is fighting back through protests and the courts; reframing policy as a slippery-slope towards discrimination. After World War II Mexican American citizens supported strict immigration policy and deportations even at their own expense. White ranchers and farmers objected. Liberalization during the civil rights era changed the lenses through which each side views immigration. However, the impact of the Chicano Movement on policing has yet to be determined. The voices of inclusion and guardianship are absent from the prevailing research. 9/11 and Dreamer demonstrations re-galvanized the struggle. But the most recent election blurred Latino stances. Rendered is a pattern in which every fifteen to twenty years immigration becomes the issue over which the two sides compete for political victory and policy dominance.

Author

• Nathan Pipes, University City High School