Commentary on “Bordering by Law” by Judith Resnik

Abstract

Judith Resnik’s “Bordering by Law” has three major themes. First, the United States is strongly and increasingly criminalizing immigration and stigmatizing immigrants, to the detriment of everyone. Second, the United States is engaging in more and more harmful surveillance of migrants as well as citizens. Third, the history of the Universal Postal Union provides a model for how to overcome nationalist solipsism, as well as a warning that the virtues of public governance are threatened by privatized services. This commentary focuses mostly on the first theme, disagreeing to some extent with Resnik’s characterization of the trajectory of policies surrounding immigration and immigrants, and aiming to substitute a more complicated and multifaceted characterization. Her final theme provokes several larger questions, which are explored but not answered. The overall message is that we need more political analysis to fully understand the United States’ ambivalent treatment of migration and migrants.