Law enforcement and security challenges in the U.S.‐Mexican border region1

Abstract

This article examines law enforcement and security challenges of the U.S.‐Mexican border region in light of the emergent, but still inchoate policy regime following from the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Unlike long‐standing challenges rooted in basic economic forces of supply‐and‐demand, the new national security challenges confronted in the post‐9/11 context are the result of the deliberate intent to cause harm. In order to be effective in guarding against this new set of challenges, policy makers and enforcers have therefore begun to adapt existing mechanisms—currently devoted to curbing market driven behaviors—to preventing and reducing harm.