Xenophobia at the U.S.-Mexico Border: Impacts of Anti-Latina/o/x Discourse on Transfronterista Community College Students

• In Event: "Why Do They Hate Us?" Education and Racist Rhetoric in the Trump Era and Beyond

Abstract

Objectives: Historically, presidential candidates have promoted an everlasting discourse surrounding migration, border security, and the Latina/o/x community. The goal of this paper is to illuminate the widespread impact of 45’s xenophobia in shaping the experiences of Latina/o/x community college students who live and traverse the U.S.–Mexico border. While political coverage on legislation directed at the U.S.–Mexico border remain prevalent, scholarship focused on this region and its ties to the lived realities of Latina/o/x students remains insufficient. To help fulfill this breach, this study considers how Latina/o/x students in community college, specifically transfronterista students that cross the border into the U.S. daily to attend college, are the targets of violent sociopolitical climate found in Tijuana–San Diego.
Theoretical framework: Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latina/o Critical Theory (LatCrit) are the theoretical lenses applied in this study. These theories center the relationship between race, racism, and power by proposing that racism is a normal part of U.S. society and not
an atypical characteristic of our nation (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). Additionally, racist nativism explains how whites have developed structures to justify their perceived superiority. Together, CRT, LatCrit, and racist nativism underscore how racial hierarchies rooted in ideologies of inclusion and exclusion lead to state-sponsored anti-Latina/o/x and immigrant violence.

Methods and data sources: Pláticas rooted in Chicana/Latina feminist epistemologies were used with ten Latina/o/x community college students in the Tijuana-San Diego border (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016). This paper focuses on the account of one student participant, a Mexican woman, to demonstrate how 45-era racism informs the lived realities of Latina/o/x community college students along the Tijuana–San Diego border. The highlighted student, who goes by Mayra, is a transfronterista, a person who lives and navigates both Mexico and the United States concurrently and frequently experiences border crossing.

Findings: The findings provide an in-depth analysis of an interaction at a U.S. port of entry between a white border patrol agent and Mayra, transfronterista student. The exchange exemplifies how anti-Latina/o/x and -immigration policies promoted by 45 are enacted by border patrol agents and directed to Mexican transfronterista students. I argue that transfronterista students endure racist nativist practices on their commute to school that impact their educational trajectories: from being late to class for being detained at the border for additional inspection, to stress-related symptoms that can impair their mental health, focus, and learning ability. The findings also demonstrate the spatial impact of political and geographic focused discourses that advance xenophobia toward Latina/o/x immigrant communities, who find themselves surviving violent borders.

Significance: Xenophobia at the U.S.–Mexico border is an understudied phenomenon
that affects millions of people. Studying the exchanges between border patrol agents and border crossers at the U.S. entry points produces rich data telling of the practices found within, including manifestations of violence. I posit that the experiences of Latina/o/x community college students in the U.S.-Mexico border illuminate the realities of Latinas/os/x living within a nation-state that continues to perpetuate white supremacy against People and Immigrants of Color.

Author

• Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano, University of Texas at San Antonio