Product Description

By 1994 American anti-immigration rhetoric had reached a fevered pitch, and throngs of migrants entered the U.S. nightly. In response, the INS launched "Operation Gatekeeper," the centerpiece of the Clinton administration's unprecedented effort to "regain control" of our borders. In Operation Gatekeeper, Joseph Nevins details the administration's dramatic overhaul of the San Diego-Tijauna border-the busiest land crossing in the world-adding miles of new fence and hundreds of trained agents.
This crackdown came, paradoxically, at a time when borders were becoming increasingly irrelevant. Even as new fences were built, the border was enjoying enormous growth and integration, with nearly 300,000 workers crossing legally into the U.S. to work. However, proponents of the project successfully presented the immigrant not only as a lawbreaker, but as a threat to national sovereignty and American society. Nevins shows how this imagery resonated in a country with a history of racist anti-immigrant sentiment.
Years later, Operation Gatekeeper has failed to significantly reduce unauthorized immigration, but it has undoubtedly contributed to the hardships, and sometimes death, of unauthorized border crossers-not to mention the damage to the position of Hispanics in American society. With a journalist's eye for detail, Nevins provides an immensely readable account of what has become an increasingly central concern for developed nations: keeping third world immigrants out.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161227 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1994 the Clinton administration upped the neo-protectionist ante by doubling the budget for fences and trained agents along the border between Mexico and the U.S. Journalist Joseph Nevins's Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the `Illegal Alien' and the Remaking of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary explores this concerted effort to prevent illegal border crossings in the context of the mid-90s economic boom and the hundreds of thousands of legal Mexican immigrants. Examining physical, political and economic attributes of the Border culture often abstracted in postmodern literary and cultural criticism, Nevins argues that Clinton's program has done little to keep undocumented immigrants from entering but has increased the dangers for them as well as inflamed anti-immigrant tendencies in the U.S. Mike Davis's introduction will help draw attention to this astute book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In October 1994, the Immigration and Naturalization Service began Operation Gatekeeper. Its goal was to reduce the movement of Mexicans across the U.S. border between San Diego and Tijuana. Nevins (Berkeley), who writes for the Nation, the Progressive, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications, examines this operation in the context of immigration between these two countries. A historical account of the United States-Mexico border shows that, up through recent times, the movement of peoples between the two countries was of relatively little concern. Not until the period of 1970 to the 1990s did political pressures make securing the border a pressing national issue. In turn, this pressure popularized the concept of the illegal alien. Operation Gatekeeper itself was developed by the Clinton administration to counter efforts by Gov. Pete Wilson to restrict Mexican migration into California as well as the Proposition 187 movement to deny education, health, and social services to undocumented immigrants. While the operation did defuse anti-immigrant feelings, it made the crossing much more dangerous and resulted in an increased loss of life. This work complements Peter Andreas's Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (LJ 8/00) and Pablo Vila's Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.-Mexican Frontier (Univ. of Texas, 2000). Nevins does a good job of presenting the case, but the result is a narrowly focused work that is most appropriate for academic libraries. Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
...an exaustively researched and well-organized compendium of information on the history and making of the Mexico-U.S boundary...The book's strength lies in its conceptual emphasis on immigration policy as a political-economic process rooted in deep-seated sociocultural agendas that materialize across time and space. [This] book will be helpful in bringing the illegal immigration debate into the larger discourse about globalization and the post 9/11 future of the Mexico-U.S border. -- International Migration Review, Vol. 36, No. 4 Winter 2002
Nevins' research is highly original...skillfully introduces academic material within a compelling narrative. The ideas are fresh, the scholarly debates are fully engaged, and the storyline never lags. -- Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Bill Clinton launched Operation Gatekeeper in 1994...Nevins demonstrates how this politcally motivated policy failed to significantly reduce unauthorized border crossings. -- Foreign Affairs
...a richly descriptive historical volume about the US Border Patrol strategy to enhance the enforcement of boundaries since 1994. -- Choice
Nevins meticulously deconstructs this political, and above all, human phenomenon in a thorough and penetrating text. Operation Gatekeeper could not be more timely: literally, there are lives on the line. -- Rubén Martínez, author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail
Operation Gatekeeper gives a forensic-like analysis of the U.S.-Mexican border, and efforts to control the human resources on both its sides. Indispensable to scholars and anyone wanting to know why the border is still contested ground. -- Rodolfo F. Acuña, author of Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
An important and timely book. Not only does Nevins provide a convincing indictment of U.S. policy on the Mexican border (a policy that has increased deaths, driven down wages, and shown the U.S. to be anything but the open,tolerant society is likes to proclaim itself to be). He also provides a rich account of the historical and contemporary context that has made Operation Gatekeeper central to rising American Nationalism. -- Don Mitchell, author of The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape
Add[s] significantly to the literature on Mexican migration... free of the uninformed claims and inflammatory language that characterizes so much of the literature on this topic. -- Political Science Quarterly
Well-researched and important. -- American Historical Review

...an exaustively researched and well-organized compendium of information on the history and making of the Mexico-U.S boundary...The books strength lies in its conceptual emphasis on immigration policy as a political-economic process rooted in deep-seated sociocultural agendas that materialize across time and space. [This] book will be helpful in bringing the illegal immigration debate into the larger discourse about globalization and the post 9/11 future of the Mexico-U.S border. -- International Migration Review, Vol. 36, No. 4 Winter 2002
Nevins research is highly original...skillfully introduces academic material within a compelling narrative. The ideas are fresh, the scholarly debates are fully engaged, and the storyline never lags. -- Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Bill Clinton launched Operation Gatekeeper in 1994...Nevins demonstrates how this politcally motivated policy failed to significantly reduce unauthorized border crossings. -- Foreign Affairs
...a richly descriptive historical volume about the US Border Patrol strategy to enhance the enforcement of boundaries since 1994. -- Choice
Nevins meticulously deconstructs this political, and above all, human phenomenon in a thorough and penetrating text. Operation Gatekeeper could not be more timely: literally, there are lives on the line. -- Rubén Martínez, author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail
Operation Gatekeeper gives a forensic-like analysis of the U.S.-Mexican border, and efforts to control the human resources on both its sides. Indispensable to scholars and anyone wanting to know why the border is still contested ground. -- Rodolfo F. Acuña, author of Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
An important and timely book. Not only does Nevins provide a convincing indictment of U.S. policy on the Mexican border (a policy that has increased deaths, driven down wages, and shown the U.S. to be anything but the open, tolerant society is likes to proclaim itself to be). He also provides a rich account of the historical and contemporary context that has made Operation Gatekeeper central to rising American Nationalism. -- Don Mitchell, author of The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape
Add[s] significantly to the literature on Mexican migration... free of the uninformed claims and inflammatory language that characterizes so much of the literature on this topic. -- Political Science Quarterly
Well-researched and important. -- American Historical Review

Customer Reviews

Important story often overlooked, excellent book
Especially for those of us who live in the Southwest, this is a very important book that contains a reality which is underreported in national and mainstream media. The only reason I have given this book 4 stars rather than 5 is a result of the overall writing style. It is a very historically-based book that can come off as a bit dry at times, but the content and shock value alone more than makes up for it. Read this book and learn about the violence that takes place every day on the US-Mexico border in the name of democracy and freedom.

A very thorough and highly thought provoking book
This book changed the way I think about the U.S.-Mexico border, undocumented immigrants, and border control. It provides a thorough and fascinating history of the development of the border, and practices and identities related to it. The perpespective of the author is certainly unique and provocative. He puts forth ideas and analysis that one rarely if ever hears or reads. I highly recommend it.

An eye-opening book ..... informative and thorough.
This book provides an excellent overview on the history of the US-Mexican border, and immigration laws that have been instituted over the years. The author is able to see through the propaganda the US government uses to perpetuate their "rationale" for the continued security buildup with regards to the border. Anyone with an interest in history and/or immigration should read this book, and become enlightened!