When
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The Silence of Transborder Suffering: Emotions, Obedience, and Embodiment
Estefania Castañeda Pérez | Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn Migration Initiative, University of Pennsylvania
Research has widely documented the injurious consequences of border and immigration enforcement on the lives of asylum seekers and immigrants. Yet, the same framing has not been utilized to describe everyday interactions at land ports of entry, where transborder commuters are routinely subjected to surveillance and excessive policing .
How do transborder commuters respond to interaction with CBP officers?
Drawing form original survey data and interviews at three ports of entry in AZ, CA and TX, Castañeda Pérez finds that due to the uncertainty and fear surrounding punitive actions from CBP officers, transborder commuters heavily rely on their emotions to convey trust and legitimacy of their mobilities and identities to CVP officers, a process she calls "border embodiment."
This novel conceptual framework reimagines border and immigration enforcement policies as embodied exercises of state power that racialize and discipline Latinx bodies. She outlines three stages of border embodiment: 1) non-compliance; 2) non-acceptance and 3) acceptance. Each of these processes lead to distinct emotional outcomes.
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