The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security / Edition 2

by Tony Payan, Kathleen Staudt

Overview

This book addresses the three central issues that continue to dominate the U.S.-Mexico relationship today: drugs, immigration, and security. Nowhere is this more palpable than at the 2,000-mile border shared by the two countries.

The U.S.-Mexico border remains a hot topic in the news—and a contentious one. This second edition of a popular work brings readers up to date on what is really going on at the U.S.-Mexico border and why. The book offers a detailed, history-based examination of the evolution of current conditions on the border, arguing that they exist due to a steady growth in the security concerns of the United States over almost two centuries. The author shows how the border has gone through four historical stages that, ultimately, have crippled the region, sacrificing its ability to produce prosperity in exchange for greater security.

Combining depth and breadth, the book covers the economic relationship between Mexico and the United States, the deployment of technology, the bureaucratic interests that control the border landscape, the democratic deficit, and a detrimental lack of policy coordination. Issues such as drug trafficking and homeland security are considered as well. Demonstrating the internal and contradictory logic of American policy toward the border, the author argues that current conditions could lead to a returban of authoritarianism in Mexico and a concurrent rise in anti-American sentiment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440835414
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Series:	Praeger Security International
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Tony Payan, PhD, is director of the Mexico Center at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University in Houston, TX.

Table of Contents

Foreword Kathleen Staudt vii

Preface xi

1 The Three Border Wars 1

2 The Drug War on the Border 24

3 Immigration and the U.S.-Mexico Border 85

4 Homeland Security and the Border 146

5 The Panopticon Border 180

Notes 217

Bibliography 235

Index 251

What People are Saying About This

Héctor Tobar

"Tony Payan's book is an excellent primer on the myriad policy issues facing the United States and Mexico as they grapple with the opportunity and tragedy of their common border. Payan's lucid prose illuminates past and present on a frontier that has evolved from a collection of unguarded desert outposts, to an urbanized battleground of cultural conflict."

H^D'ector Tobar

"Tony Payan's book is an excellent primer on the myriad policy issues facing the United States and Mexico as they grapple with the opportunity and tragedy of their common border. Payan's lucid prose illuminates past and present on a frontier that has evolved from a collection of unguarded desert outposts, to an urbanized battleground of cultural conflict."

—

H^D'ector Tobar, author of Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States

Héctor Tobar

"Tony Payan's book is an excellent primer on the myriad policy issues facing the United States and Mexico as they grapple with the opportunity and tragedy of their common border. Payan's lucid prose illuminates past and present on a frontier that has evolved from a collection of unguarded desert outposts, to an urbanized battleground of cultural conflict."

Editorial Reviews

"Payan focuses on US-Mexico border policy since 9/11. Before 9/11, the US and Mexico had presidents who knew each other and who had worked together when Bush was governor of Texas. Both Vicente Fox and George W. Bush knew the economic and human costs of delays at the border. They toyed with the idea of an open border, something along the lines of what the European community established when they integrated their economies. But after 9/11, open borders fell by the wayside. The US decided that national security demanded more control of the border to stop would-be terrorists, illegal drugs, and immigrants. Payan methodically picks apart this policy and points out the folly and wasted resources of such efforts. He concludes that US policies are creating hostility with its neighbor and hurting the economies of both countries. Perhaps most importantly, the efforts are futile. The US has not, and will not, stop the flow of drugs by making war on drugs. The author concludes that the war on drugs only aggravates the situation. This is an excellent analysis. Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates through practitioners." - Choice

"Payan has made a compelling and timely contribution to the ongoing discussions on drugs, immigration, and national security." - Journal of American Studies

"In this text for policy makers and concerned citizens, Payan describes how the war on drugs, the war over the enforcement of immigration laws, and the war on terror have affected relations between Mexico and the U.S. and their shared border. Particular attention is paid to the conflict between the U.S. government's efforts to close the border and the desire of residents of local communities to keep it open." - Reference & Research Book News

From the Publisher