Immigration, Environment, and Security on the U.S.-Mexico Border

This book examines the convergence of conservation and security efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. The author presents a unique analysis of the history of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, a federally protected border wilderness area. Beginning in the early 1990s, changes to U.S. immigration policy dramatically altered the political and natural landscape in and around Cabeza Prieta. In particular, the increasing presence of Border Patrol has contributed to environmental degradation in wilderness. Complicated human rights concerns are also explored in the book. Protecting wildlife in an area with high rates of undocumented border-crossing and smuggling results in complex and sometimes controversial conservation policies. Ultimately, the observations and analysis presented in this book illustrate ways in which the politics of race and nationalism are subtly, but significantly, interwoven into border environmental and security policies.

Provides a transdisciplinary approach, bridging anthropology, environmental history, conservation studies and critical race theory Links environmental and political histories to current events, especially militarization of the border and human rights Analyzes findings based on several years of ethnographic fieldwork, archival research and media analysis

Autorentext

Lisa Meierotto is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Service at Boise State University, USA.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.- 2. A Disciplined Space.- 3. The Environmental and Political History of Cabeza Prieta: People in Wilderness.- 4. Perceptions of Environmental Degradation.- 5. Human Rights in Border Conservation: Access to Water at Cabeza Prieta.- 6. Saving Sonoran Pronghorn: Science, Policy, and Endangered Species.- 7. The Future of Cabeza Prieta and Significance for Global Conservation.