ABSTRACT
Beginning in the early 1970s, the United States experienced a sharp rise in official and public sentiment in favor of boundary enforcement and immigration restriction in the United States. Southern California, and San Diego in particular, were among the hotbeds of these feelings. These political
and ideological developments took place on the national and local scales and were the medium-term roots of Operation Gatekeeper and the national strategy that emerged in 1994. These changes dovetailed with a heightening of enforcement activities along the Southwest boundary with Mexico and, more specifically, in the San Diego area from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s.
