Overcoming Title 42 and the 2022‐3 Venezuelan Migrant Expulsion Spectacle: A Border Securocracy Case Study

On October 12, 2022, the Biden administration abruptly changed course and announced that Venezuelan refugees would be immediately subject to Title 42—the policy that effectively means that those migrants would be summarily forced to return, or expelled, to Mexico. For FY 2022, Customs and Border Protection apprehended and/or expelled a total of 2,766,582 enforcement actions (CBP FY 2022). The resulting media spectacle illustrates another example of border securocracy —defined as the globalized border industrial apparatus oppressing the masses from the global south. We construct a case study based on Boje's narrative approach to illustrate how guided discussions of Title 42 policy changes can be understood using existing literature by Agamben and Debord. Additionally, Anzaldua's concept of nepantla shows promise as a foil for border securocracy while allowing us to maintain a nuanced understanding of the “in‐between‐ness” and socio‐cultural identity of border crossers, mostly from Latin America, as influenced by the US policy apparatus. Related Articles Garrett, T. M. 2020. “The Security Apparatus, Federal Magistrate Courts, and Detention Centers as Simulacra: The Effects of Trump's Zero Tolerance Policy on Migrants and Refugees in the Rio Grande Valley.” Politics & Policy 48, no. 2: 372–395. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12348 . Garrett, T. M. and A. J. Sementelli. 2023. “Revisiting the Policy Implications of COVID‐19, Asylum Seekers, and Migrants on the Mexico–U.S. Border: Creating (and Maintaining) States of Exception in the Trump and Biden Administrations.” Politics & Policy 51, no. 3: 458–475. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12537 . Obinna, D. N. 2023. “Title 42 and the Power to Exclude: Asylum Seekers and the Denial of Entry Into the United States.” Politics & Policy 51, no. 4: 508–523. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12542 .