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.