Run for the Border

Mexico and
the United States exist in a symbiotic relationship: Mexico frequently provides
the United States with cheap labor, illegal goods, and, for criminal offenders,
a refuge from the law. In turn, the U.S. offers Mexican laborers the American
dream: the possibility of a better livelihood through hard work. To supply each
other's demands, Americans and Mexicans have to cross their shared border from
both sides. Despite this relationship, U.S. immigration reform debates tend to
be security-focused and center on the idea of menacing
Mexicans heading north to steal abundant American resources. Further, Congress
tends to approach reform unilaterally, without engaging with Mexico or other
feeder countries, and, disturbingly, without acknowledging problematic southern
crossings that Americans routinely make into Mexico.

In Run for the Border, Steven W. Bender
offers a framework for a more comprehensive border policy through a historical
analysis of border crossings, both Mexico to U.S. and U.S. to Mexico. In contrast
to recent reform proposals, this book urges reform as the product of
negotiation and implementation by cross-border accord; reform that honors the
shared economic and cultural legacy of the U.S. and Mexico. Covering everything
from the history of Anglo crossings into Mexico to escape law authorities, to
vice tourism and retirement in Mexico, to today's focus on Mexican
border-crossing immigrants and drug traffickers, Bender takes lessons from the
past 150 years to argue for more explicit and compassionate cross-border
cooperation.

Steeped in
several disciplines, Run for the Border
is a blend of historical, cultural, and legal perspectives, as well as those
from literature and cinema, that reflect Bender's cultural background and legal
expertise.

Auteur

Steven W. Bender

Contenu

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I . Running for the Border to Escape Justice

1 El Fugitivo

Part I I . Economic Motivations for Southbound Border Runs

2 Gringos in Paradise 3 A Giant Sucking Sound Part I I I . Illicit Motivations for Southbound Border Runs

4 Margaritaville: The Lure of Alcohol

5 Losin' It: Prostitution and the Child Sex Trade

6 Going Southbound: Mexican Divorces and Medical

Border Runs

Part IV. Economic Motivations for Northbound Border Runs

7 Rum-Running for the Border

8 Acapulco Gold

9 Coming to America

Part V. A Framework for Comprehensive Border Reform

10 Lessons from 150 Years of Border Crossings

11 Good Neighbor Immigration Policy

viii | Contents

12 Reefer Madness

13 A Framework for Southbound Crossings

14 Laws the Border Leaves Behind

Conclusion

Notes

Index

About the Author