Cross-border Mobility and Clandestine Practices: Scenarios of Violence in the Mexico-United States Border Region

This article analyzes the changes in the clandestine component of various cross-border mobility strategies of the population in three cities on the Mexico-United States border: Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Matamoros. The clandestine component results not just from a lack of documents but also from the rules for their use and people's reasons for crossing, producing its own social hierarchization in this border space. Border residents, like those who travel long distances to cross the border to find work, also cross employing subterfuge in order to use their tourist visas to work or move drugs. The context of violence in which these movements occur affects people's lives as the violence of the state and that of criminal actors involved in the smuggling of drugs and people intersect. This work provides a broad panorama of clandestine practices in the border region, demonstrating that alliances of, and coordinated actions by activists, policymakers, and governments are needed to minimize the impact of migration policies and border control on impoverished populations, for whom cross-border mobility is a survival resource.