JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
  • About K
  • Academics
  • Admission
  • Alumni Relations
  • Giving to K
  • News & Events
  • Student Life
  • HORNET HIVE
  • ATHLETICS
  • SITEMAP
  • WEBMAIL
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   CACHE Homepage
    • Academic Departments, Programs, and SIPs
    • International and Area Studies (IAS)
    • International and Area Studies Senior Integrated Projects
    • View Item
    •   CACHE Homepage
    • Academic Departments, Programs, and SIPs
    • International and Area Studies (IAS)
    • International and Area Studies Senior Integrated Projects
    • View Item

    The "Immigration Crisis" as a Security Threat : Biopolitical Sovereignty and the State of Exception at the US/Mexico Border

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Searchable PDF/Kalamazoo College Only (361.2Kb)
    Date
    2020-11-01
    Author
    Schieber, Faruq
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Immigration has for much of the last two decades been at the forefront of political discourse in the United States. The policy created or lack thereof in response to this issue has become a defining characteristic of multiple presidencies and it seems as though it’s an issue that only grows more complicated with time. Although the issues surrounding both legal and ‘illegal’ migration over the US/Mexico border have been around for a long time, 2019 became an especially defining year relative to the experiences of migrants under new Trump Administration policies. In 2019 the flow of migrants across the US/Mexico border became, for a time, the subject of serious controversy and national interest in the United States. Further, the discourse around immigration shifted from that of political concern to panic over the newly identified immigration crisis in the name of national sovereignty. Concurrently, disturbing reports and images flooded the national news media describing the detention and separation of families, framed within liberal ideals and the human rights discourse. Congressional representatives and would-be presidential candidates descended on the US/Mexico border zone demanding the termination of the Trump administration’s child/family separation policy in what seemed to be a moment of national shame. Images of children being torn from their families’ arms and placed in cages were rapidly followed by reports that the US government had “lost track” of many of the children it had separated and detained. The coverage of these events painted a picture that US immigration policy had somehow taken a turn for the worse and this might have been true but at the same time that narrative implied that immigration policy in the United States had not already been building toward exactly the uses of state power that we witnessed in 2019. Moreover, I argue that the language used to describe the effects of US policy at the US/Mexico border, specifically the framework of crisis has only justified the extreme actions taken by the US government and effectively solidified a state of exception at the US/Mexico border. There are several important questions that arise from the issue presented here but it is important to first establish that these questions will be examined through the framework of a state of exception, the concept developed in Giorgio Agamben’s 2005 book of the same name. Agamben develops the state of exception as a circumstance in which the state (government) operates in such a fashion that it is actually violating the rights of non-citizens and possibly citizens living in the state. However, this violation is usually justified by an outside threat to the sanctity of the state and its constituent elements and thus it is deemed necessary (and legal) that these rights be violated.
    URI
    https://cache.kzoo.edu/handle/10920/39422
    Collections
    • International and Area Studies Senior Integrated Projects [29]

    Browse

    All of CACHECommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Login

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
    Logo

    Kalamazoo College
    1200 Academy Street
    Kalamazoo Michigan 49006-3295
    USA
    Info 269-337-7000
    Admission 1-800-253-3602

    About K
    Academics
    Admission
    Alumni Relations
    Giving to K
    News & Events
    Student Life
    Sitemap
    Map & Directions
    Contacts
    Directories
    Nondiscrimination Policy
    Consumer Information
    Official disclaimer
    Search this site


    Academic Calendars
    Apply
    Bookstore
    Crisis Response
    Employment
    Library
    Registrar
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV