A passage I found interesting in “Technological Warfare” by Jason De Leon was on pages 154-155 when the author is describing the border patrol facility. The description of the facility and agent giving a guided tour is very different from that of Memo and Lucho. The facility has a large amount of weaponry, gadgets, and most wanted posters. Compared to Memo and Lucho who carry items to survive the desert and hope to cross the border for better lives. De Leon also notes that the agent “…is like most of the Border Patrol agents who have given me and my students guided tours of their facilities over the years. He is young, male, Latino, and excited to show off his toys.” Although the border patrol agent (and by De Leon’s language, most agents) share at least a language and possibly some aspects of culture with migrants, they couldn’t be more different. Referring to the weapons as toys shows how border patrol agents dehumanize migrants, treating their capture as though it is a game. Off-topic, but I thought the phrase “academic voyeur” (p. 154) is also worth noting. In academia, people are reduced to data and their stories to theories.
In “The Border Patrol State” by Leslie Silko I thought that the passage at the beginning of page 4 was interesting. Specifically when Silko speaks about how immigration has become a political euphemism that is used to “dehumanize and demonize” people of color. The U.S government uses this term to alienate an entire group of people and serve its own purposes. Even if the physical border and the many expensive gadgets used by border patrol hardly deters people from crossing the border, it is used as a “theatrical prop”. The fence works as intended for its political purpose; to serve as a symbolic barrier that separates “us” from “other”. This barrier perpetuates the idea that people of color are somehow different and need to be kept out for whatever reason.
