From US Request to Mexico Engagement: An Ethnographic and Visual Study of Immigration Enforcement by Proxy

• In Event: 3449 - Migration Crises: Case Studies and Comparative Analyses from Across the World

Abstract

This paper provides an ethnographic examination of the Programa de la Frontera Sur (PFS). I study the ways in which the Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM)–National Institute of Migration—implements and enforce the PFS against Central American migrants. I consider the program’s efforts to identify, screen, and remove migrants before they reach the U.S.-Mexico Border. An externalization of migration [and border] control model is employed to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the significance of extraterritorial state-driven initiatives driven by national security concerns. In this model, third countries through collaborative agreements and financial assistance act as the outsourced enforcers of migration and border control. In the Mexican case, we use the approach to understand the ways Mexico engages U.S. political activism to preclude Central Americans mobility through an interdiction program like the PFS. This article uses visual and ethnographic data gathered during summers 2015- 2018 in southern, central, and northern regions of Mexico where border migration law is enforced. The paper found that Mexican migration officers make significant efforts to not only identify and interdict migrants in transit across Mexico, but also to emulate U.S. Border Patrol tactics to remove undocumented migrants. The U.S. sponsored Programa de la Frontera Sur has enabled INM officers to screen, sift, and remove migrants without the due process protection they need from maltreatment and extortion by state officials.

Authors

• Juan José Bustamante, University of Arkansas

• Eric Gamino, California State University, Northridge