Did You Spot an Alien? Voluntary Vigilance, Borderwork and the Texas Virtual Border Watch Program

Abstract

In 2008, the US launched an Internet site, the Texas Virtual Border Watch Program, which shows real-time video from the US–Mexico border. With this site, anyone can participate in US border control. In this article, the programme is discussed in relation to contemporary theories of border studies: the relocation of borders, borderwork and the bordering process. The programme is described as part of a widespread voluntary vigilance and as a continuum of the technological control over the border. Based on an analysis of the media, three discourses have been identified: the vigilant citizens, the reassuring authorities and the sceptical critics. These reveal the advantages and risks of the programme from different perspectives. It is argued that the programme remains ‘cosmetic’ border control and that this echoes the dilemma between economic wellbeing and security issues.

Acknowledgements

This article was written as part of the athor's project ‘Representations of material spaces in the virtual space of the Internet’, funded by the Academy of Finland (project 1120394). The author wishes to thank the critical and constructive audience in the ‘Segurança e Controle Social na América Latina’ conference in Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brasil, 4–6 March 2009, and the two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

See: http://www.blueservo.net/.

The aim of the ‘virtual’ fence covering part of the Arizona–Mexico border was to allow Border Patrol agents to monitor the border via cameras, ground sensors and radar. The programme was launched by the Bush administration in 2005 and was supposed to be in operation along the 2000-mile border by 2011.