Sovereignty Unbound: US Congressional Militarization of the US-Mexico, Mexico-Guatemala, and Guatemala-Mexico Borders (1971-2016)

Abstract

This dissertation examines US militarized border security history through a multi-layered study of the US, Mexico, and Guatemala Congresses after 1986. By examining this historically and currently important case, I illuminate the drivers of border security policy on the US-Mexico border and in the region. The periodization focuses on the rise of border security into the largest armed federal entity outside of the military. I use two major historical research strategies: (1) an analysis of the personal papers of two members of Congress from Arizona who led to increase border security—US Senator Dennis DeConcini (1977-1995) and US Representative Jim Kolbe (1987-2007), and (2) the US, Mexico, and Guatemala Congressional Records after 1986. The congressional records document the process simultaneously as US border security increased on the US-Mexico border and then regionally expanded onto Mexico and Guatemala borders. This dissertation challenges the academic perspectives that presidents led the growth of US border security policy. My research shows members of the US Congress from border states led Congress to legislate and pressure multiple presidential administrations to increase militarized border security policies and enforcement on the southwest border, and then export that security to Mexico and Guatemala.