![Sample our Geography journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5937/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Geography.jpg"})
Abstract
The number of unauthorized tunnels discovered through the U.S.–Mexico border has risen dramatically since the mid‐1990s. These tunnels are problematic for the state because the subterranean border is both less visible and more difficult to monitor and control than is the surface border. In this era of heighten security, the debate on secure borders has intensified. As a result, the need to demonstrate security success at both the national and the agency level has risen. Efforts to make tunnel discoveries (and security) visible are made within border‐security agencies and within national discourse and legislation. These efforts spatially fix tunnels to the border in ways that obscure fuller a understanding of drug trafficking in general. This paper employs archival research, content analysis, and informal interviews with security‐enforcement agents to consider the material presence of tunnels within border landscapes.
Notes
1. Laws have now changed to facilitate prosecution of unfinished tunnels if conspiracy to dig a transborder tunnel can be proven.
2. Title III refers to the Federal Wiretap Act, which determines procedures for court authorization of real‐time surveillance of electronic communications in relation to criminal investigations. Communications include voicemail, e‐mail, fax, and Internet.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Cynthia Sorrensen
Dr. Sorrensen is an assistant professor of geography at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409; [[email protected]].