No country for border crossers: leisure-based vigilantism and frontier justice in the US

Civilian border patrols along the US-Mexico border have been analyzed primarily through the frameworks of immigration politics, securitization, and nativist mobilization. Less attention has been paid to the cultural environments through which these practices acquire meaning and social legitimacy, specifically the outdoor recreational cultures of camping, survivalism, and armed self-reliance that shape who participates, why, and how. This article develops the concept of leisure-based vigilantism to examine this neglected dimension of border vigilantism. Drawing on a historical lineage from frontier expansion to contemporary militia networks, the article argues that border vigilantism cannot be understood solely through ideology or security concerns. Camping near migration routes and tracking footprints across the desert draw on skills and routines already embedded in outdoor recreational culture. Frontier mythology, white territorial belonging, and armed citizenship are continually reproduced within these leisure environments. Leisure becomes a space where understandings of who belongs, who does not, and who has the right to defend the nation are transmitted. Through these practices, collective identities are reinforced and particular white supremacist understandings of American identity continue to be learned, enacted, and passed on.