Internalized Borders and Checkpoints: How Immigration Controls Became Normalized Tools for COVID-19 Responses in North America

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how checkpoints in North America were first implemented, their use and rationale, and how, through the recent pandemic, they have become public health response tools. Using content analysis and judicial review, this paper contributes to the discussion on border security and surveillance by analyzing checkpoints and how they were implemented in a non-border setting during the pandemic – as well as how their use marked new interior borders.

KEYWORDS:

• Checkpoints
• borders
• North America
• COVID-19
• Canada
• internalization

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.