Abstract

LEE, Alison Elizabeth. US-Mexico Border Militarization and Violence: Dispossession of Undocumented Laboring Classes from Puebla, Mexico. Migr. Inter [online]. 2018, vol.9, n.4, pp.211-238. ISSN 2594-0279.  https://doi.org/10.17428/rmi.v9i35.444.

Interviews with return migrants in Puebla, Mexico before and after the massive border build-up of the mid-2000s reveal how increased border enforcement entailed greater risks of arrest and potentiated the violence migrants experienced at the hands of smugglers and criminals, reducing circular migration. Dispossessed of physical security and psychological well-being, illegal mobile bodies create value for multiple accumulation processes: at the point of production as vulnerable workers, as well as commodities for trafficking organizations and private detention centers. The violence inflicted on undocumented border crossers disciplines them for the more exploitative labor relations of temporary worker programs.

Keywords : violence; illegality; human smuggling; United States; Mexico.