Border Brokers: Children of Mexican Immigrants Navigating U.S. Society, Laws, and Politics

273 Pages·2019·6.546 MB·English

by  Christina M. Getrich

BORDER BROKERS

CHRISTINA M. GETRICH
BORDER BROKERS
Children of Mexican Immigrants Navigating
U.S. Society, Laws, and Politics
The University of Arizona Press
www .uapress .arizona .edu
© 2019 by The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved. Published 2019
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 8165- 3899- 7 (cloth)
Cover design by Leigh McDonald
Cover photo by Matthew C. Wright
Publication of this book is made possible in part by the proceeds of a permanent endowment created
with the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal
agency.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available at the Library of Congress.
Printed in the United States of America
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 3
1. Increasingly Anti- immigrant Public Policies and Their Impact on Mixed- Status Families 37
2. Conceptualizing Citizenship and Illegality 59
3. Contending with the Repercussive Effects of Illegality and Deportability 91
4. Embodying and Contesting the Effects of Racialized Enforcement 117
5. Tracing Different Trajectories of Transborder Life 140
6. Brokering Belonging in the Shadow of the State 169
Conclusion 197
Appendix A: Conducting Research with Borderland Young Adults 209
Appendix B: Participants 217
Abbreviations 219
Notes 221
References 225
Index 245

ILLUSTRATIONS
1. The westernmost segment of the U.S.-Mexico border ending in
the Pacific Ocean, dividing San Diego and Tijuana 26
2. A typical home in the southeast San Diego barrio 30
3. The barrio, in the shadow of San Diego and encroaching
development 32
4. The second layer of border fencing and stadium-style lighting
in the San Diego sector of the border 46
5. A young protestor demonstrates his Mexican and American
heritage and pride during the immigrant rights protests of 2006 60
6. Protestors at the May 1 “Day Without an Immigrant” protest
at the U.S.-Mexico border 81
7. A uniformed Border Patrol officer stands guard by an apartment
complex and shopping mall close to the border on the U.S. side 102
8. Approaching the San Ysidro Port of Entry from the U.S. side 119
9. Approaching the inspection booth at the San Ysidro Port of Entry
from the Mexican side of the border crossing 128
10. A Border Patrol sports utility vehicle stands guard at Friendship
Park on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border 201

PREFACE
DURING THE
fifteen years that I have been working on this project, immi-
gration policymaking has increasingly become an almost daily news
headline—somewhat ironically, given the lack of any actual federal
immigration-reform legislation being passed during this period. Rapidly
changing developments regarding immigration make it inherently challeng-
ing to write a book on the topics of immigration policies, border enforcement
practices, and the life experiences of members of mixed-status families. Indeed,
changing circumstances have on several occasions forced revision to parts of the
manuscript that become suddenly out of date or not in alignment with the new
sociopolitical realities of the moment. I have attempted to keep the book current
with general changes and developments throughout the production process.
As this book goes to press, we will be approaching the midpoint of the Trump
presidency; during this interval, significant changes to immigration have been
taking place through executive orders, congressional budget allocations, and
changes to how immigration policies are executed. Indeed, even without making
major official legislative changes, Trump is nonetheless “building a border wall
that no one can see” by wielding executive authority to make major bureau-
cratic changes such as ending the provisional residency of Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
holders (Sacchetti and Miroff 2017) and expanding enforcement targets, sharp-
ening enforcement tools, and widening enforcement locations (Murray 2017).