United States Surveillance over Mexican Lives at the Border: Snapshots of an Emerging Regime

Two processes intersect at the U.S.-Mexico border. The first is U.S. database surveillance of undocumented immigration and narcotics smuggling required by new, punitive, and indelible U.S. laws about 'criminal aliens.' The second is the deepening of the urbanization process, as new generations are born and raised in a border context. They intersect when young Mexican or Chicano men are interdicted carrying contraband drugs; their identities are entered into U.S. databases, and their life options are significantly shaped thereby. The overall effect is the strengthening of a surveillance regime over border people in the two nations.