Policing an Internal Border

2018 ◽  
pp. 162-189
Author(s):  
Max Felker-Kantor
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Central America ◽  
World City ◽  
Global Trade ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Immigration Status ◽  
Immigration And Naturalization Service ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
Police Authority ◽  
And Migration

Within the context of global trade and migration to cities in the 1980s, the department remobilized to expand its discretionary authority to combat the growing number of undocumented migrants. Hoping to maintain the trust of new immigrant populations, officials limited police authority to make arrests based on immigration status. Yet, the LAPD constructed an “alien criminal” category to justify cooperation with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and to arrest undocumented immigrants and refugees fleeing South and central America. In the process, the LAPD employed racialized constructions of illegality that criminalized the city’s Latino/a population in the name of protecting the image of Los Angeles as a world city.

The Caravana of Central American Mothers in Mexico: Performances of Devotional and Saintly Motherhood on a Transnational Stage-in-Motion

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-284
Author(s):  
ANA ELENA PUGA
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Central America ◽  
Family Reunification ◽  
Central American ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Victims Of Violence ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Disappeared

Like earlier mother activism in Latin America, the annual Caravana de Madres Centroamericanas (Caravan of Central American Mothers) through Mexico strategically activates the traditional archetype of mothers as passive, pious, suffering victims whose self-abnegation forces them, almost against their will, out of their supposedly natural domestic sphere. Three elements, however, distinguish the caravana from earlier protests staged by mothers. First, this protest crosses national borders, functioning as a transnational pilgrimage to the memory of the disappeared relative. This stage-in-motion temporarily spotlights and claims the spaces traversed by undocumented Central American migrants in Mexico, attempting to recast those migrants as victims of violence rather than as criminals. Second, through performances of both devotional motherhood and saintly motherhood, the caravana's mother-based activism de-normalizes violence related to drugs and migration. Third, performances of family reunification staged by the caravana organizers take place in the few cases in which they manage to locate family members who have not fallen prey to violence but have simply resettled in Mexico and abandoned or lost touch with families left behind in Central America. These performances of family reunification serve important functions: they shift the performance of motherhood from devotion to saintly tolerance, patience and forgiveness – even toward prodigal offspring who were ‘lost’ for years; they provide a chance for other mothers to vicariously feel joy and hope that their children are still alive; they exemplify world citizens challenging incompetent or indifferent nation state authorities; and they enact a symbolic unification of Central America and Mexico in defiance of contemporary nation state borders.

Paradise Transplanted

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Central America ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Informal Support ◽  
Community Garden ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Informal Support Network

This article tells the story of a central Los Angeles community garden and the women, who came primarily from Southern Mexico and Central America, who had plots there. The garden fostered an informal support network for the women and families who used it, and a place to grow food and flowers common in their home communities but not found in Los Angeles. The essay then traces the upheaval the followed a local nonprofit’s takeover of, and investment in, the garden.

Expulsion of “Undesirable” Chinese from the Philippines, 1883–1898

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-178
Author(s):  
Jely A. Galang (贾杰理)
Keyword(s):  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Political Security ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Colonial Government

Abstract “Undesirable” Chinese – vagrants, undocumented migrants, pickpockets, beggars, drunkards, idlers and the “suspicious” – were considered “dangerous” by the Spanish colonial government because they posed a threat to the financial and political security of the Philippines. Mostly belonging to the laboring classes, these unemployed and marginally employed individuals were arrested, prosecuted and punished for violating policies relating to registration, taxation and migration. While other forms of discipline and punishment were meted out to these “minor” offenders, the state deemed it necessary to expel them from the colony. This paper explores why and how “undesirable” Chinese were expelled from the Philippines between 1883, when the first expulsion order was issued, and 1898, when Spanish rule ended. Set in the broader political and socio-economic context of the late nineteenth century, it examines the actors, institutions and processes involved in banishing these offenders to China. Using previously underutilized archival materials, it interrogates the relations that emerged among various entities such as the state, the leaders of the Chinese community in Manila, private businesspeople, and Chinese “criminals” in terms of the expulsion process.

scholarly journals ‘Cheap Merchandise’: Atrocity and Undocumented Migrants in Transit in Mexico’s War on Drugs

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052096181
Author(s):  
Javier Trevino-Rangel
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Central America ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Undocumented Migration ◽  
The Subject ◽  
In Transit

Undocumented migrants in transit in Mexico are victims of atrocity. The subject has been largely ignored by scholars, however, until recently when a number of migration experts became interested in the matter. Most observers argue that abuses suffered by migrants are the consequence of the ‘securitization’ of Mexican immigration policy. For them, Mexican authorities perceive migrants from Central America as a threat to national security and have hardened laws and migratory practices as a result, but there is insufficient evidence to support these claims. This article looks at the political economy of undocumented migration in transit in Mexico and the violence associated with it. It investigates the abuses suffered by migrants not as the result of supposed security policies but rather as the consequence of the interplay between local and global economies that generate profits from undocumented migration. The article explores the role played by state officials, cartels and ordinary Mexicans in the migration industry.

International cities in the dual systems model: the transformations of Los Angeles and Washington

Urban History ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 41-59
Author(s):  
Carl Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Manufacturing Industries ◽  
World City ◽  
Dual Systems ◽  
Systems Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
Characteristic Product

The popularization of ‘World City’ as an analytical concept dates to 1966. Taking up a term introduced fifty years earlier by Patrick Geddes, Peter Hall's now classic description ofThe World Citiesexplored the evolution of a handful of key urban areas from national into global roles and functions. The original emphasis on size and comprehensive economic functins has since been extended by the argument that a distinct class of global cities are a characteristic product of the technologies and economy of the late twentieth century. As well, such cities are thought to embrace common spatial forms that respond to a specific balance of centralizing and decentralizing tendencies in the location of commercial, financial, and manufacturing industries.

scholarly journals Pathways of Change: Shifting Connectivities in the World City Network, 2000—08

Urban Studies ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1861-1877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Derudder ◽  
Peter Taylor ◽  
Pengfei Ni ◽  
Anneleen De Vos ◽  
Michael Hoyler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
World City ◽  
World City Network ◽  
The World ◽  
City Network ◽  
Global Connectivity ◽  
Sub Saharan

This is an empirical paper that measures and interprets changes in intercity relations at the global scale in the period 2000—08. It draws on the network model devised by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research group to measure global connectivities for 132 cities across the world in 2000 and 2008. The measurements for both years are adjusted so that a coherent set of services/cities is used. A range of statistical techniques is used to explore these changes at the city level and the regional scale. The most notable changes are: the general rise of connectivity in the world city network; the loss of global connectivity of US and sub-Saharan African cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami in particular); and, the gain in global connectivity of south Asian, Chinese and eastern European cities (Shanghai, Beijing and Moscow in particular).

Prospects for Mexico and Central America to end-2017

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central America ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The North ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Business As Usual

Subject Prospects for Mexico and Central America to end-2017. Significance The economies of Mexico and Central America will maintain a ‘business as usual’ stance until renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) formally starts later in the year. Growth momentum in the region is therefore likely to be maintained for the rest of 2017. Nonetheless, threats to trade and migration links with the United States, and to remittance income, will drive uncertainty.

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