Comparative Criminal Justice

Systems

BORDER POLICING

United State-Mexico

Andreas / Marshall

QuestionsWhat issues should be considered

with “border policing?”

Why should they be considered?

What issues do you perceive as problematic

with the Mexico-United State border? Explain.

How would you measure the effectiveness

of border policing? Explain.

The Scope of Illegal Cross-Border Crime

The size and scope of illegal cross-border crime based on

published government statistics for illegal immigration and drug trafficking

only represent rough estimates.

An estimate by the International Money Fund in the 1990s indicated that $500 billion was laundered annually

through the global financial system from capital earned by smuggling practices.

Cross-Border Issues Politics

Media / Public policy

Economics

Human rights

Smuggling

Migrant labor

United States-Mexico Border Issues

A nearly two thousand mile boundary.

The busiest land border in the world.

Meeting point between a rich country and a poor country.

Legal trade (NAFTA) versus illegal trade.

Migration on the U.S. side is treated primarily as a law enforcement matter; on the Mexican side as a social and economic matter (for Mexican nationals).

Questions

Persistent illegal border crossing ranging from illegal migration to transnational criminal smuggling networks

are widely perceived as examples of “loss of state control” over national borders.

Does this perception lead to escalation and “reactive” policing to “regain control”?

Or, Does this perception exacerbate

cross-border crimes?How can this anxiety affect the media, public, and politics?

The Challenge

Assure the public that the border is open to legal trade while reassuring the public that

the border is sufficiently closed

to illegal smuggling activities.

Smuggling

Smuggling consists of all cross-border economic activity that is unauthorized by either the receiving or the sending country.

As a percentage of overall global activity, smuggling activity is possibly no more significant today than in the past.

Content and contextual issues over time include: the particular smuggling activities; the structure of the smuggling organizations; methods of transport, state laws, intensity of enforcement; the degree of societal anxiety and political attention; and the level of consumer demand.

Smuggling Crime Types

Hazardous waste Arms Nuclear material Antiquities Precious stones and

metals Illicit drugs Money

Pornography Animals Humans Body parts Migrants Prostitutes Babies

Questions

Would border policing (land and maritime) have a “hydraulic effect” on cross-border

smuggling crimes?

Is it possible that the escalation of border policing has a “net widening effect” on

cross-border smuggling crimes?

Rich Countries versus Poor Countries

In many poor countries, smuggling activities are crucial sources of employment and revenues in a growing

integrated global economic system.

Therefore, the issues of smuggling and migrant labor become major issues in a

North American border-free economic space.

This leads to the concepts of both a borderless economy and a barricaded border (a political dilemma).

Questions

Does escalation of border policing

perpetuate itself?

Would it be better, as U.S. policy, to direct our attention to the demand problem

as opposed to the supply problem?

(For example, seriously penalizing employers

instead of migrant workers.)