Looking ahead to Fall 2012

Next fall, Texas A&M University Press will publish Miguel A. Levario’s Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy. The book addresses a bi-national experience that sheds light on other border regions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as South Texas, and to a lesser degree southern New Mexico and Arizona. Militarizing the Border establishes a historical precedent to current border issues such as undocumented immigration, violence, and racial antagonism on both sides of the border. An evaluation of early militarization and its effect on racial and social relations between Anglos and Mexicans allows for a better understanding of current policy and its potential failure.

Levario’s book covers a controversial and important topic that is at the center of public policy. Texas lawmakers Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin have both suggested modifications to how the U.S. might fight Mexico’s cartels and answer questions of immigration/border laws.

Last April, McCaul, introduced a resolution that would designate Mexico’s seven cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The “resolution would freeze funds tied to the cartels and qualifies persons found guilty of aiding them for 15 additional years of prison time,” Julian Aguilar of the Texas Tribune reported. Perry suggests sending the U.S. military into Mexico to help with the violence. Perry plans to do what it takes in Mexico to keep Americans safe.

Keep a lookout for the Fall 2012 release of Miguel A. Levario’s Militarizing the Border. Read more about Perry’s remarks on Mexico involvement in Julian Aguilar’s article “Perry's Remarks on Mexico Are Praised, Dismissed” here.