Abstract
This chapter begins to tell the national story of the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2010s, in which the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas is emblematic. The chapter argues that the national media and political actors discursively treat the Rio Grande Valley most often as an internal colony, effectively rebordering the Valley as the Global South. National renderings of the southern border draw from a deep history of place-making rhetorical techniques to characterize the southern border in need of external intervention and control. The chapter’s analysis is placed within research in border rhetorics, bordering, and place-making. Secondary data on unauthorized immigration and asylum seekers as well as public corruption challenge framing assumptions and generalizations. The media and political treatment of the Valley in the 2010s continues a long history of using “the border” as a rhetorical pawn that set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump and his political platform.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Some of the early, most significant works were in postcolonial and decolonial theory (Anzaldua, 1987; Bhabha, 1994; Boone & Mignolo, 1994; Rosaldo, 1993; Said, 1978; Spivak, 1988), though it now has many theoretical articulations in multiple disciplines from literature to architecture to women’s studies.
- 2.
It is not uncommon to hear Texans say that “Texas starts at San Antonio” and “everything south of San Antonio is Mexico.” It is even more common for people across the state to say “the Valley is Mexico.”
- 3.
- 4.
An important note about terminology: There was swirling debate in 2018 whether Central Americans crossing the border into the United States were refugees or unauthorized immigrants. Since the early 2010s, Central Americans are more likely to claim asylum when they cross into the United States. The term refugee is a state-recognized term that affords international legal protection, whereas asylum seeker applies to anyone who claims asylum upon entry and is awaiting determination of refugee status. Public opinion can influence whether the state recognizes certain categories of people as refugees, so use of the term prior to state designation also occurs. In essence, there is not one umbrella term than can capture all reasons, possible legal statuses, and perspectives for people who leave their home country and move to a new country. The term immigrant is ambiguous to the point that it elides or complicates humanitarian, legal, and political aspects of moving to a new country. More often than not, adjectives are placed in front of immigrant to differentiate. For example, unauthorized, undocumented, or illegal immigrants refer to people without official permission to enter or remain in a country and do not claim asylum; they have few legal protections. Each of these three adjectives is used in specific immigration rhetoric attached to certain political platforms and policies, and they are used differently by immigrants themselves (Merolla, Ramakrishnan, & Haynes, 2013). The term illegal immigrant is no longer an academic convention, as it implies criminality. In academic circles, migrant is preferred over immigrant as a general term (Castañeda, 2018; De Genova, 2002). Finally, there is often not a distinction between migrant and immigrant in popular usage, though some use migrant to indicate movement for work or education or to indicate some kind of temporality, such as seasonal movement for work. Because of the political stakes for migrants and politicians, terms applied to people who move from one country to another are often points of serious contention that have critical legal implications.
- 5.
This number is disputed by financial analysts who work for public school districts in the Rio Grande Valley. According to a number of education leaders in the Valley, it is approximately half that figure.
Works Cited
Abrajano, M., & Hajnal, Z. L. (2015). White backlash: Immigration, race and politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Abu-Lughod, L. (2008). Writing women’s worlds: Bedouin stories (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Adichie, C. N. (2009, July 10). The danger of a single story. TEDGlobal. TED.
Agnew, J. (2008). Border on the mind: Re-framing border thinking. Ethics & Global Politics, 1(4), 175–181.
Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands: The new Mestiza = La Frontera. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minneapolis Press.
Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.
Biailik, K. (2019, January 16). Border apprehensions increased in 2018—Especially for migrant families. Pew Research Center. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/16/border-apprehensions-of-migrant-families-have-risen-substantially-so-far-in-2018/.
Boone, E. H., & Mignolo, W. D. (Eds.). (1994). Writing without words: Alternative literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Bowman, T. P. (2016). Blood oranges: Colonialism and agriculture in the south Texas borderlands. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Burnett, J., & Peñaloza, M. (2015a, July 6). Corruption on the border: Dismantling misconduct in the Rio Grande Valley. All Things Considered.
Burnett, J., & Peñaloza, M. (2015b, July 6). With corruption rampant, good cops go bad in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. All Things Considered.
Burnett, J., & Peñaloza, M. (2015c, July 7). In Rio Grande Valley, some campaign workers are paid to harvest votes. Morning Edition.
Castañeda, H. (2018, August 10). Personal communication.
Chávez, J. R. (2011). Aliens in their native lands: The persistence of internal colonial theory. Journal of World History, 22(4), 785–809.
Chávez, J. R. (2015). Beyond domestic empire: Internal- and post-colonial New Mexico (pp. 1–31). History Faculty Publications. Retrieved November 4, 2019, from http://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_history_research/3.
Chávez, L. R. (2001). Covering immigration: Popular images and the politics of the nation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chávez, L. R. (2008). The Latino threat: Constructing immigrants, citizens, and the nation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Chavez, M. (2012). Border theories and the realities of daily public exchanges in North America. Eurasia Border Review, 3(1), 201–214.
CNN. (2014, July 9). Transcript. 360 Degrees. CNN.
Comaroff, J., & Comaroff, J. L. (2012). Theory from the south or, how Euro-America is evolving toward Africa. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Cordis, A. S., & Milyo, J. (2016, January 6). Measuring public corruption in the United States: Evidence from administrative records of federal prosecutions. Public Integrity, 18(2), 127–148.
Correa-Cabrera, G. (2012). The spectacle of drug violence: American public discourse, media, and border enforcement in the Texas-Tamaulipas border region during drug-war times. Norteamérica, 7(2), 199–220.
DeChaine, D. R. (Ed.). (2012). Border rhetorics: Citizenship and identity on the U.S.-Mexico border. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
De Genova, N. P. (2002). Migrant “illegality” and deportability in everyday life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31, 419–447.
Donnan, H., & Wilson, T. M. (Eds.). (2010). Borderlands: Ethnographic approaches to security, power, and identity. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2016, December 22). Corruption on the border: New campaign enlists the public’s help. FBI. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/border-corruption-campaign-enlists-publics-help.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). What we investigate: Public corruption. FBI. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/public-corruption.
Flores, L. A., & Villarreal, M. (2012). Mobilizing for national inclusion: The discursivity of whiteness among Texas Mexicans’ arguments for desegregation. In D. R. DeChaine (Ed.), Border rhetorics: Citizenship and identity on the US-Mexico frontier (pp. 86–102). Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.
Gawande, A. (2009, June 1). The cost conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/01/the-cost-conundrum.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Goltz, D. B., & Pérez, K. (2012). Borders without bodies: Affect, proximity, and utopian imaginaries through “lines in the sand”. In D. R. DeChaine (Ed.), Border rhetorics: Citizenship and identity on the US-Mexico frontier (pp. 163–180). Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.
Gomez, A. (2012). Deus Vult: John L. O’Sullivan, manifest destiny, and American democratic messianism. American Political Thought, 236–262.
Gómez-Peña, G. (1996). The new world border: Prophecies, poems & locuras for the end of the century. San Francisco, CA: City Lights.
Gómez-Peña, G. (2001). Dangerous border crossers. New York: Routledge.
Gramlich, J., & Noe-Bustamante, L. (2019). What’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border in 6 charts. Pew Research Center. Retrieved May 2, 2019, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/whats-happening-at-the-u-s-mexico-border-in-6-charts/.
Guillette, G. S. (2016, May 6). Globalization. Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0010.xml#firstMatch.
Heyman, J. M. (2012). Constructing a “perfect” wall: Race, class, and citizenship in US-Mexico border policing. In P. Barber & W. Lem (Eds.), Migration in the 21st century: Political economy and ethnography (pp. 153–174). New York and London: Routledge.
Heyman, J., Slack, J., & Guerra, E. (2018). Bordering a “crisis”: central American asylum seekers and the reproduction of dominant border enforcement practices. Journal of the Southwest, Winter, 754–786.
Kearney, M. (1995). The local and the global: The anthropology of globalization and transnationalism. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 547–565.
López, A. J. (2007). Introduction: The (post)global south. The Global South, 1(1), 1–11.
LUPE. (2016). About us. LUPE. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://lupenet.org/about-us/.
McLeod, J. (2007). Introduction. In J. McLeod (Ed.), The Routledge companion to postcolonial studies (pp. 1–18). London: Routledge.
Merolla, J., Ramakrishnan, S. K., & Haynes, C. (2013). “Illegal”, “undocumented”, or “unauthorized”: equivalency frames, issue frames, and public opinion on immigration. Perspectives on Politics, 11(3), 789–807.
Murphy, K. (2016, August 10). Texans beat the heat with water from Mexico. The New York Times, p. (digital).
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. 567 US 519 (2012).
Nevins, J. (2010 [2002]). Operation gatekeeper and beyond: The war on “illegals” and the remaking of the U.S.-Mexico boundary. New York: Routledge.
Obama, B. (2013, January 29). Remarks by the president on comprehensive immigration reform. The White House President Barack Obama. Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/29/remarks-president-comprehensive-immigration-reform.
Obama, B. (2014, November 20). Transcript: Obama’s immigration speech. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-obamas-immigration-speech/2014/11/20/14ba8042-7117-11e4-893f-86bd390a3340_story.html.
Office of Hillary Rodham Clinton. (2019). Immigration reform. Office of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/immigration-reform/.
Ono, K. A. (2012). Borders that travel: Matters of the figural border. In D. R. DeChaine (Ed.), Border rhetorics: Citizenship and identity on the US-Mexico frontier (pp. 19–32). Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.
Ono, K. A., & Sloop, J. M. (2002). Shifting borders: Rhetoric, immigration, and california’s proposition 187. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Passell, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2017). As Mexican share declined, U.S. unauthorized immigrant population fell in 2015 below recession level. Pew Research Center. Retrieved May 2, 2019, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/25/as-mexican-share-declined-u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population-fell-in-2015-below-recession-level/.
Payan, T. (2006). The three U.S.-Mexico border wars: Drugs, immigration, and homeland security. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Pew Research Center. (2014, July 16). Surge of central American children roils U.S. immigration debate. Pew Research Center. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.people-press.org/2014/07/16/surge-of-central-american-children-roils-u-s-immigration-debate/.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey. 505 US 833 (1992).
Price, B. (2015, February 27). Perry at CPAC: No immigration reform without border security. Breitbart.
Proyecto Azteca. (2019). About us. Proyecto Azteca. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.proyectoazteca.org/.
Ramshaw, E., & Aguilar, J. (2011, September 11). Is Perry tough enough on immigration—For republicans? The Texas Tribune.
Redden, M. (2009, June 9). Obama’s favorite New Yorker article. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 21, 2019, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/obamas-favorite-new-yorker-article.
Rodríguez, J. J. (2010). The literatures of the U.S.-Mexican war: Narrative, time, and identity. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Rosaldo, R. (1993). Culture & truth: The remaking of social analysis. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Sabol, S. (2017). The touch of civilization: Comparing American and Russian internal colonization. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
Sapp, L. (2011). Apprehensions by U.S. border patrol: 2005–2010. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved May 6, 2019, from https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois-apprehensions-fs-2005-2010.pdf.
Sherman, C. (2014, April 30). South Texas officers sentenced on drug charges. The Associated Press.
Silvers, J. (2013). The affordable care act: Objectives and likely results in an imperfect world. Annals of Family Medicine, 11(5), 402–405.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.
Staudt, K. (2014). The border, performed in films: Produced in both Mexico and the US to “bring out the worst in a country”. Journal of Borderland Studies, 29(4), 465–479.
Stephanson, A. (1995). Manifest destiny: American expansion and empire of the right. New York, NY: Hill and Wang.
Stevenson, A. J., Flores-Vazque, I. M., Allgeyer, R. L., Schenkkan, P., & Potter, J. E. (2016, March 3). Effect of removal of planned parenthood from the Texas women’s health program. New England Journal of Medicine, 374, 853–860.
The White House President Barack Obama. (n.d.). Paula S. Gómez and David G. Hall. Champions of Change: Winning the Future Across America. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/champions/leaders-in-closing-the-justice-gap/paula-s.-g%C3%B3mez-and-david-g.-hall.
Trump, D. (2016, July 21). Address accepting the presidential nomination at the republican national convention in Cleveland (U. o. Barbara, Ed.) Cleveland, OH: The American Presidency Project. Retrieved July 12, 2018, from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=117935.
U.S. Border Patrol. (2018). United States Border Patrol: Southwest border sectors, total illegal alien apprehensions by fiscal year (Oct 1 through Sept. 30th). U.S. Border Patrol. Retrieved May 2, 2019, from https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Mar/bp-southwest-border-sector-apps-fy1960-fy2018.pdf.
U.S. Border Patrol. (2019). United States Border Patrol: Total illegal alien apprehensions by fiscal year (Oct. 1st through Sept. 30th). U.S. Border Patrol. Retrieved May 2, 2019, from https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Mar/BP%20Total%20Apps%2C%20Mexico%2C%20OTM%20FY2000-FY2018%20REV.pdf.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2019, July 1). Quick facts: Starr County, Texas; Willacy County, Texas; Hidalgo County, Texas; Cameron County, Texas. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/starrcountytexas,willacycountytexas,hidalgocountytexas,cameroncountytexas/PST045219.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2019, May 5). Glossary: Apprehension. Retrieved from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/glossary/apprehension.
U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement. (2019, May 2). CBP enforcement statistics FY 2019. Retrieved from U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics.
U.S. Department of Justice. (2014). Report to Congress on the activities and operations of the public integrity section for 2013. United States Department of Justice, Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division. Washington: Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal/legacy/2014/09/09/2013-Annual-Report.pdf.
U.S. Department of Justice. (2017). Report to Congress on activities and operations of the public integrity division for 2016. United States Department of Justice, Public Integrity Division. Washington: Public Integrity Division Criminal Division United States Department of Justice. Retrieved January 7, 2020, from https://www.justice.gov/criminal/file/1015521/download.
White, K., Hopkins, K., Grossman, D., & Potter, J. E. (2018). Providing family planning services at primary care organizations after the exclusion of planned parenthood from publicly funded programs in Texas: Early qualitative evidence. Health Services Research, 53(S1), 2770–2786.
Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstadt. 579 US (2016).
Woodworth, S. E. (2010). Manifest destinies: America’s westward expansion and the road to the civil war. New York, NY: Knopf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fleuriet, K.J. (2021). The Valley as the Border, the Border as a Dangerous, Faraway Place. In: Rhetoric and Reality on the U.S.—Mexico Border. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63557-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63557-2_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-63556-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-63557-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)