“And You Welcomed Me?”: A Theological Response to the Militarization of the US –Mexico Borders and the Criminalization of Undocumented Migrants

Abstract

“And You Welcomed Me?”:: A Theological Response to the Militarization of the US–Mexico Borders and the Criminalization of Undocumented Migrants Ilsup Ahn, Agnes Chiu, and William O'Neill Since 1994, when NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) went into effect, the US–Mexico border security has been significantly tightened, and as a result, over 5,000 undocumented migrants have perished in the Sonoran desert near the US–Mexico border. According to Androff and Tavassoli, approximately 4 percent (11.9 million) of the US population are undocumented immigrants making up 5.4 percent (8.3 million) of the US workforce. Seventy‐six percent of these undocumented immigrants are reported to be Hispanic, and among these, Mexican undocumented migrants take up about 59 percent (7 million). Although the Obama administration is currently pushing forward its political campaign for the long overdue immigration reform, the administration makes clear that the US government will continue to securitize the US–Mexico border with enhanced surveillance technologies and increased Border Patrol agents. We are not sure at the moment how the government budget fallout incurred by the sequester will affect the future of its policy on border militarization. In this paper, in the midst of the current political turmoil revolving around the immigration reform, we will explore the relatively unknown side of the increased border militarization—dehumanization of undocumented migrants—from the vantage point of Christian theology and ethics. Our initial position is that the immigration crisis is not merely a political, economic, or legal conundrum; it is indeed one of the most pressing ethical issues in America today because the widespread human rights violations and dehumanization of undocumented migrant people are structurally interrelated with the militarization of the borders as well as the criminalization of all undocumented migrants. The militarization of the US–Mexico border and the criminalization of undocumented migrants First, what is the border militarization and how does the border militarization become an ethical issue to consider? Perhaps the border militarization may be illustrated by the increasing numbers of the Border Patrol agents and their budgets. There are about 22,000 Border Patrol agents today, compared to 4,000 in 1992. Among 22,000 agents, about 4,000 agents are stationed in the “Tucson Sector” covering the Southwest border area from the New Mexico state line to the Yuma County line in western Arizona. The budget for the Border Patrol has increased exponentially from $262 million in 1990 to over $3.5 billion in 2011, and the nearly $12 billion budget of the Border Patrol's parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been doubled since 2004. The border militarization is particularly concentrated on the Southwest borders in Arizona. According to Raymond Michalowski, the militarization of the US–Mexico border has significantly increased the social injuries of those who cross the border without documentation in three broad categories: “(1) bodily harms such as death, injury, and illness, (2) exploitation by human smugglers, drug organizations, and sometimes law enforcement personnel, and (3) dehumanization in the form of hyper‐criminalization, vigilantism, and abuses to human dignity.” Since the first major step toward militarization of the US–Mexico border was launched in 1994 in the name of Operation Gatekeeper, the annual death count rose from 24 in 1994 in the San Diego borderlands, to 147 by 1998, marking the 600 percent increase. The increasing militarization of the US–Mexico border, however, failed to prevent migrant people from Mexico and Central America from crossing attempts; as a matter of fact, the increasing numbers of migrants were forced to choose more dangerous routes so that they would not get caught by the Border Patrol agents. As a result of this unfortunate devolvement, by 2005 the overall death toll near the border area reached its astounding number of 5,000. Critically analyzing the cause of this increased death toll, Michalowski argues that the increased death toll of undocumented migrants is the intentional result of “border militarization strategies designed to force migrants away from safer routes and toward more dangerous ones.” The border militarization policies have also begotten another unintended, but deadly side effect. As a result of these policies, ideal conditions for the emergence of a new...