Fear on the Border

President Bush’s plans to send the National Guard to the border where intended to calm the fears of those who are concerned that the border is “out of control.”  But efforts to quell the fears of some people have sparked the fear of others.  Daniel Borunda reports in today’s El Paso Times that in the wake of Bush’s speech, many undocumented immigrants in the El Paso area are concluding that there is collusion between law enforcement officers and those implementing border control efforts.

Whether these conclusions are right or wrong, the resulting fear is likely to generate unintended negative consequences for relations between undocumented populations and government officials such as law enforcement personnel and school officials.  Such fears seem inevitable given the increasingly blurry line between crime control and border control.

The full text of the El Paso Times article is here.

-jmc