ABSTRACT
Following the end of the Cold War, the U.S. emerged as the sole power in the world, demarcating a unipolar global system. However, much of this rise was not arguably related to communism. While a bulk of the prior immigration laws were crafted during wartime and were tied directly to those conflicts or their respective results, now the U.S. was in a peculiar position. This new position birthed amorphous enemies – crime, drugs, and terrorism – that needed to be eliminated, and thus the securitization of America began to accelerate. Much of these amorphic enemies were framed as immigration-related. However, it will be argued in this chapter that this ‘securitization’ process was not limited to just immigration, but also included the criminal justice system and national security apparatus. While these ‘systems’ existed and had started to converge before and during the Cold War, and their purpose is on controlling internal and external threats, their foci has collectively become drastically expanded since the end of the Cold War and this expansion was accelerated following 9/11. This chapter examines the growth of the security-insecurity paradox that was examined in Chapter 2 with a larger emphasis on how foreign policy and immigration decisions fuel crime, terrorism, and migration.
