The Right to Secure: The 100 Mile Border and the Making of a Carceral Geography

Keywords: Border, Carceral, Security, Rights, Latinx
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This presentation explores the emergence of the 100-mile border zone (HMBZ) in order to argue that the U.S. has expanded its borders inward and redefined notions of national security and our modern understanding of human rights. I argue that the HMBZ and the security apparatuses that constitute its nebulous geography challenges our understanding of borders as solely being geographic lines between two sovereign nations. The ramifications of the expansion of the border and the inward security gaze over the HMBZ deeply affects the rights and status of Latinx. I contend that within the HMBZ, Latinx persons are disproportionately targeted, and, in fact, many citizens’ 4th and 5th Amendment rights are violated. I begin by detailing the dual emergence of border legislation that created the HMBZ and “Operation Wetback” in 1953-1954. “Operation Wetback,” which, to date, was the largest mass deportation in American history and 1.3 million Latinx persons were deported, is inextricably linked to the emergence of the HMBZ and continues to affect their rights and status. I will highlight modern legislation and court cases that managed and reproduced the carceral logic of borders in the name of state sovereignty that affect documented and undocumented Latinx. Following a genealogy of the HMBZ to present day, I will explore the ways in which this zone has evolved into a carceral geography that also affects the everyday lives of all US citizens.