ABSTRACT
This chapter connects the violence of U.S. military histories in Central America to the violent protocols migrants must endure in the U.S. borderlands of the southwestern desert. Brutality also confronts migrants, especially children, in detention centers where they are incarcerated under conditions that Human Rights and legal advocates characterize as torture. We argue that the logics and design of U.S. militarization and the spread of violence in the countries of the Northern Triangle are connected to the policies that now dominate the U.S. borderlands. The United States has justified the growth of militarism in the hemisphere, first as a battle against Communism, and now as a war on international Drug Cartels. We argue that these battles and their justifications, bolstered by security discourses, have misidentified the problems, failed in their military objectives, and prevented a pathway to peace. We understand the growing violence to be the actual crisis that destroys prosperity in Central America, as it spreads across the United States.
In addition to the media frames of security discourses, protocols of corporate media and the growth of militainment have resulted in formats that sensationalize representations of violence and celebrate the brutality directed at migrants. Examples of media that focus on the criminalization of immigrants, such as coverage of the Minuteman Project and TV Reality Shows, have helped propel xenophobia as exciting entertainment. This environment contextualizes the rhetoric of the 45th President, who has employed hate speech and the politics of fear, inserting their rhetorics into mainstream electoral politics.
Presently, border communities themselves, such as El Paso, Texas, have pushed back against the military presence at their towns, and media have covered their challenges. We view this as a hopeful dynamic, and a possible indication that humanitarian principle may be re-discovered.
