Introduction: shifting geographies of border crossings

In the late 1980s the United States border with Mexico was increasingly represented as a ` ̀ conduit for a variety of defined `threats ' to the United States'', including drugs, ` ̀ illegal' ' workers, and social instability (Ackleson, 2005, page 172; Andreas, 2000; Nevins, 2002). These perceived threats to the body politic were deemed to requir