Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper integrates Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “bare life” with the Copenhagen School’s concept of “securitization” to develop a theoretical framework for analyzing the causes and consequences of the securitization of unauthorized immigration during the 1950s and the relation of this process to the implementation of “Operation Wetback”. Emphasis is placed on the key roles of the media, politicians, the INS, labor unions, and Mexican civil rights organizations. With respect to labor unions and Mexican American civil rights organizations, specifically, it is argued that they did not simply act out of interest, but also articulated their social identities and allegiances through the issue of immigration, explaining, in part, why they were so active in legitimating the linkage between unauthorized immigration and national security that ultimately made Operation Wetback possible. In the concluding section, the positions taken by labor unions and Mexican American civil rights organizations in the 1950s are contrasted with the positions taken by these organizations at present, and the implications that this has for the possibility of a similar government operation occurring today are explored.