Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines how the US-Mexico border and its enforcement apparatus violently fracture transnational migrant families, using La Bestia—the notorious freight train traversing Mexico—, as a central symbol and entry point. Drawing on documentary film, legal scholarship, and migration literature, the paper argues that borders do not simply restrict movement but actively criminalize it, functioning as instruments of "legal violence" that separate families, endanger children, and perpetuate cycles of trauma and precarity. The paper first traces the structural roots of Central American displacement, including US foreign intervention and neoliberal economic reform, before analyzing how policies such as the Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico) and Title 42 have institutionalized family separation. It concludes by calling for an immigration framework that recognizes migration as a fundamental right and reimagines borders as sites of connection rather than exclusion.
Source: On Politics
Author: Solis Perusquia, Hanna
Language: English
Topic: Migration and Exile Studies
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7220162269