Acuña on SB1070 Ruling | mexmigration: History and Politics of Mexican Immigration

Acuña on SB1070 Ruling | mexmigration: History and Politics of Mexican Immigration.

Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez: “Who’s The Immigrant: Selena Gomez Or Justin Bieber?”: Chicagoist

Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez: “Who’s The Immigrant: Selena Gomez Or Justin Bieber?”: Chicagoist.

Levario: Immigration policy change a purely political maneuver | Amarillo Globe-News

Levario: Immigration policy change a purely political maneuver | Amarillo Globe-News.

MILITARIZING THE BORDER

MILITARIZING THE BORDER

Militarizing the Border When Mexicans Became the Enemy Miguel Antonio Levario

As historian Miguel Antonio Levario explains in this timely book, current tensions and controversy over immigration and law enforcement issues centered on the US-Mexico border are only the latest evidence of a long-standing atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust plaguing this region. Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy, focusing on El Paso and its environs, examines the history of the relationship among law enforcement, military, civil, and political institutions, and local communities. In the years between 1895 and 1940, West Texas experienced intense militarization efforts by local, state, and federal authorities responding to both local and international circumstances. El Paso’s “Mexicanization” in the early decades of the twentieth century contributed to strong racial tensions between the region’s Anglo population and newly arrived Mexicans. Anglos and Mexicans alike turned to violence in order to deal with a racial situation rapidly spinning out of control. Highlighting a binational focus that sheds light on other US-Mexico border zones in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Militarizing the Borderestablishes historical precedent for current border issues such as undocumented immigration, violence, and racial antagonism on both sides of the boundary line. This important evaluation of early US border militarization and its effect on racial and social relations among Anglos, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans will afford scholars, policymakers, and community leaders a better understanding of current policy . . . and its potential failure. MIGUEL ANTONIO LEVARIO, an assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University, recently contributed a chapter to War along the Border: The Mexican Revolution and Tejano Communities (edited by Arnoldo De León, Texas A&M University Press, 2011). He earned his PhD at the University of Texas. What Readers Are Saying: “…this book is needed…excellent…will make an important contribution to the field…exhaustive research in local, state, and national archives…other books exist on the subject of racism and its roots, but this book covers different territory…unique features”–Arnoldo De Leon, professor of history at Angelo State University; co-author of Beyond Texas Through Time “This work represents an important contribution to the continuing effort to excavate the past in order to provide a deeper understanding of the history of the people of Mexican origin in the United States, and more specifically, of the tejano experience.”–Alex M. Saragoza, department of Comparative Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley