The United States is outsourcing its border patrol abroad—and
essentially expanding its borders in the process
The twenty-first
century has witnessed the rapid hardening of international borders.
Security, surveillance, and militarization are widening the chasm
between those who travel where they please and those whose movements
are restricted. But that is only part of the story. As journalist
Todd Miller reveals in Empire of Borders, the nature of US
borders has changed. These boundaries have effectively expanded
thousands of miles outside of US territory to encircle not simply
American land but Washington’s interests. Resources, training, and
agents from the United States infiltrate the Caribbean and Central
America; they reach across the Canadian border; and they go even
farther afield, enforcing the division between Global South and
North.
The highly
publicized focus on a wall between the United States and Mexico
misses the bigger picture of strengthening border enforcement around
the world.
Empire of Borders
is a tremendous work of narrative investigative journalism that
traces the rise of this border regime. It delves into the practices
of “extreme vetting,” which raise the possibility of
“ideological” tests and cyber-policing for migrants and visitors,
a level of scrutiny that threatens fundamental freedoms and allows,
once again, for America’s security concerns to infringe upon the
sovereign rights of other nations.
In Syria, Guatemala,
Kenya, Palestine, Mexico, the Philippines, and elsewhere, Miller
finds that borders aren’t making the world safe—they are the
frontline in a global war against the poor.