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Latinas/os on the Line
The US Border Patrol has long worked to arrest migration along the US-Mexico border. This geographical and political boundary has played a powerful role in shaping and constraining the identities and life chances of the Mexicans, Chicanas/os and Latinas/os living in these borderlands (see generally, Anzaldúa, 1987; Vila, 2000; Alarcón, 2003; Barvosa, 2008). The racist effects of border enforcement are well documented (Garcia, 1980; Lugo, 2000; Maril, 2004; Rosas, 2006). So when Latinas/os - who make up 52 per cent of all Border Patrol agents (Pinkerton, 2008) - begin policing the same border that their families or they themselves have crossed, sometimes without authorization, they are met with the accusation "traitor." This interpellation1 suggests that normative Latina/o identity is counterposed to participation in immigration enforcement and raises dilemmas related to both racial identity and the racial state. What does the case of Latina/o immigration enforcement agents reveal about identity and identification2 among Latinas/os whose origins are in Mexico and Central America? And, what can we learn about the present mode of racial rule in the United States by examining the case of Latina/o Border Patrol agents?
I make two interrelated arguments. First, in terms of identity, Latina/o immigration enforcement agents offer two types of responses to the accusation of "traitor." Some agents allay what may be a latent guilt about their work by emphasizing their humane approach to their job, suggesting some degree of conformity to a normative Latina/o identity defined, in part, by a transnational racial solidarity that spans the US-Mexico border. On the other hand, some agents evidence a personal and professional commitment to immigration enforcement while still identifying with their Latina/o heritage. This finding suggests that this transnational racial solidarity can be eclipsed by nationalist commitments motivated by the pressure to "assimilate," to earn a living, and as a result of an occupational culture that polices "inmate lover" and "alien lover" behavior. I draw on the work of Barvosa (2008) and Omi and Winant (1986) to argue that racial identification is a multiple, contradictory and eminently mutable process.
Second, I argue that in spite of the growing diversity in the Border Patrol and some of its agents' professed humane approach to enforcement, the hegemonic racial state...