Terence Michael Garrett

On October 12, 2022, the Biden administration abruptly changed course and announced that Venezuelan refugees would be immediately subject to Title 42—the policy that effectively means that those migrants would be summarily forced to return, or expelled, to Mexico. For FY 2022, Customs and Border Protection apprehended and/or expelled a total of 2,766,582 enforcement actions (CBP FY 2022). The resulting media spectacle illustrates another example of border securocracy —defined as the globalized border industrial apparatus oppressing the masses from the global south. We construct a case study based on Boje's narrative approach to illustrate how guided discussions of Title 42 policy changes can be understood using existing literature by Agamben and Debord. Additionally, Anzaldua's concept of nepantla shows promise as a foil for border securocracy while allowing us to maintain a nuanced understanding of the “in‐between‐ness” and socio‐cultural identity of border crossers, mostly from Latin America, as influenced by the US policy apparatus. Related Articles: Garrett, T. M. 2020. “The Security Apparatus, Federal Magistrate Courts, and Detention Centers as Simulacra: The Effects of Trump's Zero Tolerance Policy on Migrants and Refugees in the Rio Grande Valley.” Politics & Policy 48, no. 2: 372–395. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12348 . Garrett, T. M. and A. J. Sementelli. 2023. “Revisiting the Policy Implications of COVID‐19, Asylum Seekers, and Migrants on the Mexico–U.S. Border: Creating (and Maintaining) States of Exception in the Trump and Biden Administrations.” Politics & Policy 51, no. 3: 458–475. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12537 . Obinna, D. N. 2023. “Title 42 and the Power to Exclude: Asylum Seekers and the Denial of Entry Into the United States.” Politics & Policy 51, no. 4: 508–523. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12542 .

The U.S. border security apparatus is moving around the globe as climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and corporatization create political and economic chaos. Global north governments seek to keep out migrants and refugees from the global south while corporations in the global north want protection to maintain their wealth. U.S. government bureaucratic agencies such as Custom and Border Protection’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit are sent abroad to expand U.S. influence in an empire of borders to train receptive government security and border forces and to regulate, detain and prevent migrants and refugees well beyond the U.S. border. Governments are waging war against the people, creating a “securocracy” comprised of profit seeking military arms corporations and allied government agents to quell resistance and border crossers. Examined are the effects and impacts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on global border securocracy beginning with an analysis of the Mexico-U.S. border, moving to international borders in Latin America and beyond. The theoretical concept of border securocracy is expanded from the securocracy literature in the context of the north versus south globalization conflict.

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates possibilities for creating states of exception while simultaneously destabilizing the Mexico-U.S. border through the politics of fear. Specifically, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP), COVID-19 CAPIO, Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACA), and Title 42-using the pandemic under an arcane section of U.S. law to immediately expel asylum seekers and refugees, in particular-highlight the formation of a state of exception consistent with the work of Agamben. They also document how the politics of fear is used to reinforce hegemonic narratives targeting asylum seekers while attempting to reinforce political agendas that lean toward a specific brand of nationalism using the lens of public health as a context. The U.S. government under the Trump administration, and the Biden administration to a lesser extent, constructed these policies aimed primarily at refugees and asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, thereby violating laws and international treaty obligations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has repercussions well beyond the confines of borders. National border policies can thwart international efforts to combat the spread of infectious diseases. These problems are especially relevant for the United States with the spectacle of President Trump’s “big, beautiful border wall” used as leverage to maintain political and economic power domestically and globally while confronting the coronavirus pandemic. The focus of this paper is the implementation of Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy, Migrant Protection Protocols, and the Asylum Cooperation Agreement, all aimed primarily at migrants and refugees, the homo sacer, from Central America to prevent entrance into the U.S. using the border security apparatus. These policies have adverse consequences for people dwelling throughout the hemisphere, particularly borderlanders, as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads into the Americas.

Purpose: In the Rio Grande Valley, natural gas corporations have proposed building up to five export terminals for shipping to overseas locations liquefied natural gas (LNG). The LNG terminals constructed would have adverse consequences for the people living in the area. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conflict between citizen groups and corporations.Design/methodology/approach: Using a narrative approach, theories by Boje, Debord, Bauman and Best and Kellner, the paper analyzes and tests the strategies and resources and stories utilized by proponents and opponents of the LNG terminals in the Port of Brownsville. Examined are internet media as artifacts for the analysis, in addition to an evaluation of political protests and demonstrations.Findings: Corporate globalization may be halted because of resistance put forth by local opponents – citizen and environmental groups – offering resistance due to perceptions that the local economy and environment may be severely damaged.Research limitations/implications: LNG corporate expansion continues globally. The research provides a glimpse into one how one locality may resist capitalist domination, protecting its own economy and environment.Practical implications: The assessment provides a practical means to examine how local resistance may successfully avert unwanted fossil fuel industries.Social implications: Local citizens’ groups may have the means necessary to stop the LNG terminals from locating in the Rio Grande Valley; however, capitalist globalization may be too much of an irresistible force to overcome.Originality/value: This research paper demonstrates the conflict inherent to globalization through the economic and environmental consequences that occur when citizen groups oppose corporate fossil fuel expansion into their community.

The Challenger and Columbia similarities in management decision making with regard to the ill-fated shuttle mission failures bear scrutiny. Key aspects of both tragedies include senior-level managers ignoring the advice from experts within the NASA organization leading to tragedy. NASA is typical of modern organizations in the tendency to relegate worker knowledge below that of managers and executives. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board has determined that the organizational/management culture was a key factor in the demise of the Columbia. The author argues that culture, although an important contributor to the tragedy, is inadequate for assessing the problem. Differences in knowledge between executives, managers, and the workers are key to unlocking the central problem of the NASA organization. The author uses and develops the theoretical approach that delves into multiple knowledges in organizations that is known as the “knowledge analytic.”