Abstract
This essay proposes a model for analyzing the militarization of the US–Mexico border and, more specifically, the death toll that it has elicited. It counters existing critiques of border militarization that imply that the border death toll is a result of a scheme for labor exploitation associated with late global capitalism. This essay argues that while entrapment and exploitation account for the economic exploitability of Latin American immigrants and of Latinos writ large, the border death toll is more a reflection of the role that race has played in structuring modern nation states like the United States. The death toll, moreover, is largely the result of how Latinidad has been produced as an ethno-racial signifier of peril within the socio-logics of US sovereignty. To account for this condition, this essay introduces the term racial state of expendability.
Márquez, J. Latinos as the “Living Dead”: Raciality, Expendability, and Border Militarization. Lat Stud 10, 473–498 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/lst.2012.39.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Administration of William J. Clinton. 1993. Remarks and an Exchange with Reporters on Immigration Policy. Public Papers of the Presidents of the Unites States of America, William J. Clinton, July 27.
Agamben, G. 2005. The State of Exception. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Aguirre, I.P. 2010. Photographs from Guereca’s Funeral. Photography, June 10. In Texas Tribune, by Ivan Pierre Aguirre. http://www.texastribune.org/texas-mexico-border-news/texas-mexico-border/photographs-from-guerecas-funeral/, accessed 9 July 2012.
Alonso-Meneses, G. 2003. Human Rights and Undocumented Migration Along the Mexican U.S. Border. UCLA Law Review 51(1): 267–281.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 2006. Are you Living in a Constitution Free Zone? http://www.aclu.org/national-security_technology-and-liberty/are-you-living-constitution-free-zone, accessed 9 July 2012.
Amnesty International. 1998. Human rights concerns in the border region with Mexico. Last modified 20 May, http://www.amnesty.org, accessed 9 July 2012.
Andreas, P. 1994. The Making of Amerexico: (Mis)Handling Illegal Immigration. World Policy Journal 11(2): 45–56.
Andreas, P. 2009. Border Games: Policing the U.S.–Mexico Divide. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Anzaldúa, G. 1987. Borderlands/La Frontera. New York: Aunt Lute Books.
Bacon, D. 2008. Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Benjamin, W. 1978. Critique of Violence. Reflections 14(3): 277–300.
Borden, T. 2000. INS: Border Policy Failed. The Arizona Republic, August 10, A1.
Branigin, W. 1996. U.S. Beefing Up Forces on the Southwestern Border. Washington Post, January 12, A:26.
Carrigan, W.D., and C. Webb. 2003. The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United States, 1848 to 1928. Journal of Social History 37(2): 411–438.
Chávez, L. 2008. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens and the Nation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos and the American Civil Liberties Union. 1996. Políticas Letales, Muros Mortales. Muerte de Migrantes en la Frontera Sur de los Estados Unidos. http://www.seguridadcondemocracia.org/seguridad-fronteras-y-migracion/seguridad-fronteras-y-migracion/politicas-letales-muros-mortales.-muerte-de-migrantes-en-la-frontera-sur-de-estados-unidos.html, accessed 9 November 2009.
Cooper, M. 2003. On the Border of Hypocrisy. LA Weekly, December 5–11, 1.
Cornelius, W.A. 2001. Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Control Policy. Population and Development Review 27(4): 661–685.
Crean Comité de Ayuda a Víctimas de la Patrulla Fronteriza. 1998. El Financiero, December 9, A1.
De León, A. 1983. They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes Towards Mexicans in Texas. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Dell’Orto, G. 2001. 14 Mexicans Die in Border Crossing. Washington Post, May 4. http://ww.washingtonpost.com/wp=srv/aponline/20010524/aponline165933_000.htm, accessed 9 July 2012.
Derrida, J. 1990. Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority’. Translated by Mary Quaintance Cardozo Law Review 11(5–6): 920–1045.
Dunn, T. 1999. The Militarization of the U.S.–Mexico Border. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Dunn, T.J. 2001. Border Militarization via Drug and Immigration Enforcement: Human Rights Implications. Social Justice 28(2): 7–30.
Dunn, T.J. 2009. Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration Enforcement. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
El Comite de Familiares de Victimas de la Patrulla Fronteriza. 1998. Press Statement. Tijuana, Mexico, October 14.
Ellingwood, K. 1998. Agent Shoots Man in Second Border Killing: As in Earlier Incident, the Victim Threatened an Officer with a Rock. Los Angeles Times, September 29.
Epstein, B. 2012. Update: Crossing the Line. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/security/video-update-crossing-the-line/13737/, accessed 1 May.
Eschbach, K., J. Hagan, N. Rodriguez, R. Hernández-Leon, and S. Bailey. 1999. Death at the Border. International Migration Review 33(2): 430–454.
Fekete, L. 2009. A Suitable Enemy: Racism, Migration, and Islamophobia in Europe. London: Pluto Press.
Ferreira da Silva, D. 2009. No-bodies: Law, Raciality and Violence. Griffith Law Review 18(2): 212–236.
Fitzgerald, K. 2008. The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez. Directed by Kieran Fitzgerald. MA: Documentary Educational Rescources. DVD.
Fitzpatrick, P. 1992. The Mythology of Modern Law. London and New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. 1976. The History of Sexuality. New York: Vintage.
Foucault, M. 2003. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Colle´ge de France, 1975–1976. New York: Picador.
Garcia, J.R. 1980. Operation Wetback: The Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954. New York: Greenwood Press.
Gilroy, P. 1990. One Nation Under a Groove: The Politics of Race and Racism in Great Britain. In The Anatomy of Race, ed. D.T. Goldberg 263–282. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Giudotti Hernandez, N. 2011. Unspeakable Violence: Remapping U.S. and Mexican National Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Goldberg, D.T. 1993. Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gómez, L. 2008. Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. New York: New York University Press.
Gonzales-Day, K. 2008. Lynching in the West. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Helfand, S. 2000. Desensitization to Border Violence & the Bivens Remedy to Effectuate Systemic Change. Berkeley La Raza Law Journal 11/12(2/1): 87.
Hesse, B. 2007. Racialized Modernity: An Analytics of White Mythologies. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30(4): 643–663.
Horsman, R. 1981. Race and Manifest Destiny. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jimenez, M. 2009. Humanitarian Crisis at the U.S.–Mexico Border. ACLU. http://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/immigrants/humanitariancrisisreport.pdf, accessed 1 July 2011.
Juffer, J. 2009. Compassion and Rage: The Face of the Migrant. South Atlantic Quarterly 108(1): 219–235.
La Resistencia. 1997. There is a War Zone. California: Brochure, San Diego Chapter.
La Resistencia. 1998. The San Diego/Tijuana Border Reality Tour. California: Brochure, San Diego Chapter.
La Resistencia. 1999. Crossing the Border Should Not Carry a Death Sentence, California. Newsletter, San Diego Chapter.
MALDEF. 2008. Hate Crimes. Press Release. http://www.maldef.org/immigration/public_policy/hate_crimes/index.html, accessed 12 June 2012.
Maldonado-Torres, N. 2008. Against War: Views from the Underside of Modernity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Márquez, J.D. 2010. Nations Re-Bound: Race and Biopolitics at US and EU Borders. In Europe in Black and White: Immigration and Identity in the Old Continent, eds. M.R. Sanches, L. Pires, J.F. Duarte, and F. Clara. Chicago, IL: Intellect Books, University of Chicago Press.
Martinez, R. 1994. U.S. Border Patrol in S. California Developing Deadly but Ineffective Operation Gatekeeper. In Motion Magazine, December 1999.
Massey, D.S., and K.E. Espinosa. 1997. What’s driving Mexico-U.S. migration?: A Theoretical, Empirical, and Policy Analysis. American Journal of Sociology 102(4): 991–992.
Matthews versus Diaz. 1976. 426 US. 67.
Mawani, R. 2010. Colonial Proximities: Crossracial Encounters and Juridical Truths in British Columbia. Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
Mbembe, A. 2003. Necropolitics. Public Culture 1(15): 11–40.
Mendoza, M. 2010. Border Cities Amongst Safest in U.S. Report Says. San Francisco Chronicle, June 4. http://www.sfgate.com/world/article/Border-cities-among-safest-in-U-S-report-says-3186131.php, accessed 9 July 2012.
Michalowski, R. 2008. Border Militarization and Migrant Suffering: A Case of Trans-national Social Injury. Social Justice 5(31): 62–76.
Montejano, D. 1987. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Montejano, D. 1999. On the Future of Anglo-Mexican Relations in the United States. In Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century, ed. D. Montejano, 232–257. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Nevins, J. 2000. The Law of the Land: Local-National Dialectic and the Making of the United States-Mexico Boundary in Southern California. Historical Geography 28: 41–60.
Nevins, J. 2002. Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the ‘Illegal Alien’ and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary. New York: Routledge.
Nevins, J., and T. Dunn. 2008. Barricading the Border. NACLA Report on the Americas 41(6): 21–25.
Omi, M., and H. Winant. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.
Peek, C., dir. 2001. New World Border. Berkeley, CA: Peek Media, DVD.
Paget-Clarke, N. 1998. Interview with Maria Jimenez: The Militarization of the US–Mexico Border. In Motion Magazine, February 2.
Palafox, J. 1996. Militarizing the Border. Covert Action Quarterly. Spring.
Palafox, J. 2000. Opening Up Borderland Studies: A Review of US-Mexico Border Militarization Discourse. History is a Weapon. http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/palafox.html, accessed 9 July 2012.
Paredes, A. 1958. With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Passel, J., D’V. Coh, and A. Gonzales-Barrera. 2012. Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—And Perhaps Less. Pew Research Center, April 23. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/23/net-migration-from-mexico-falls-to-zero-and-perhaps-less/, accessed 9 July 2012.
PBS Frontline. 2006. U.S.–Mexico Border: The Season of Death. 27 February. Pide Justicia Familia de Oscar Abel. 1998. El Mexicano, September 30, A1.
Piletsky, O. 2008. E Pluribus Unum: European Nationalism, or Shopping for Identities in the European Union. In Violence: ‘Mercurial Gestal’, ed. T. Levin. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi Press.
Presente.org. 2012. Border Patrol Killed My Husband: Help Bring Justice to My Family. Tell the Department of Justice to Investigate the Death of Anastasio. http://www.presente.org/campaign/anastasio/original_email/, accessed 9 July.
Sanchez, L. 1998a. Gunfire at the Border; Officials Concerned After Fourth Shooting Incident. San Diego Union Tribune, September 29.
Sanchez, R. 1998b. Violence: Questions Grow in U.S. Crackdown on Border Crossers. Washington Post, October 3.
Santa Ana, O. 2002. Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Discourse. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Sarmiento, A. 1998. Crean el Comité ‘Familares de Víctimas de la Patrulla Fronteriza’. El Mexicano: Grand Diario Regional, December 9.
Silva, M. 2010. Muerte de Menor Por Xenofobia: Reyes Baeza, El Universal, June 8. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/686267.html, accessed 9 July 2012.
Slater, D. 2004. Geopolitics and the Post-Colonial: Rethinking North-South Relations. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Slotkin, R. 1998. Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth Century America. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Slotkin, R. 2000. Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Smith, A. 2010. Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy. GLOBAL DIALOGUE Newsletter 12 (Number 2, Summer/Autumn).
Spener, D. 2009. Clandestine Crossings: Migrants and Coyotes on the Texas–Mexico Border. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Torres, O., and C. Sherman. 2010. Mexico Anger High as U.S. Border Patrol Kills Teen. El Paso Times, June 9, A1.
Trevino, J.A. 1998. Border Violence Against Illegal Immigrants and the Need to Change the Border Patrol’s Current Complaint Review Process. Houston Journal of Inter-national Law 21(1): 85–114.
Triandafyllidou, A. 2001. Immigrants and National Identity in Europe. London: Routledge Press.
U.S. Border Patrol. 1994. Border Patrol Strategic Plan: 1994 and Beyond, National Strategy. Washington, DC. U.S. Department of Justice.
U.S. Department of Justice. 2012. Federal Officials Close Investigation into the Death of Sergio Hernandez-Güereca. http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/April/12-crt-553.html, accessed 28 April.
U.S. Senate. 2006. Illegal Immigration: Border-Crossing Deaths Have Doubled Since 1995-Border Patrol’s Efforts to Prevent Deaths Have Not Been Fully Evaluated, S. Rpt. GAO-06-770. Washington, DC: US Government Accountability Office.
U.S. Senate. 2007. Committee on the Judiciary. Illegal Immigration Southwest Border Strategy Results Inconclusive: More Evaluation Needed, S. Rpt. 98–21. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Vélez, L. 2000. Press Statement. Speech given at the Border/Human Rights Rally. San Ysidro California.
Vila, P. 2000. Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.–Mexico Frontier. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Wolfe, P. 2006. Setter Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native. Journal of Genocide Research 8(4): 387–409.
Wong Wing versus U.S. 1896. 163. U.S. 228.
Wonders, N.A. 2006. Global Flows, Semi-Permeable Borders and New Channels of Inequality: Border Crossers and Border Performativity. In Borders, Mobility, and Technologies of Control, eds. S. Pickering and L. Weber 62–86. New York: Springer Publishing.
Yamata versus Fisher. 1903. 189 U.S. 86.
Yick Wo versus Hopkins. 1886. 118 U.S. 356.
Zammitti, C. 2011. Last Stop Lampedusa. Milan, Italy: Rai Educational.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Márquez, J.D. (2024). Latinos as the “Living Dead”: Raciality, Expendability, and Border Militarization. In: Torres, L., Alicea, M. (eds) Latino Studies: A 20th Anniversary Reader. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37784-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37784-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-37783-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-37784-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)