Border Security Infrastructure Projects: Space, Access, and Mobility in the San Diego-Tijuana Transborder Region
PhD thesis — The University of Texas at Austin, 2020. Full text: https://archive.org/details/bordersecurity
Arguments
Border Security Infrastructure Projects: Space, Access, and Mobility in the San Diego-Tijuana Transborder Region
Infrastructure is policy made permanent — a checkpoint reshapes daily life for millions of legal residents long after the headline bill passes.
Border security infrastructure doesn't just stop crossings — it redraws who can use public space: a 15-month ethnography found the built security apparatus (fencing, checkpoints) produces social and legal processes that bar Latinx residents from parks, roads, and freeways "free of harassment or fear of deportation" through ethnic profiling.
Why it matters
Infrastructure is policy made permanent — a checkpoint reshapes daily life for millions of legal residents long after the headline bill passes.
Use when: Build something and you've made a decision that outlives the debate — the fence keeps governing after the vote is forgotten.