ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the private-public boundary itself is a technology of government, a distinction that enables certain practices, material arrangements and logics. It focuses on three processes through which 'state' and 'private' actors codify formal relationships with each other: discretion, contracting and commodification. The chapter reviews contemporary approaches to the privatisation of immigration enforcement. It explains how understanding private-public boundaries as a technology of government opens up wider frames for political economic relationships. The chapter presents some examples of discretion, contracting and commodification to show how the public-private boundary is put to work to allow the expansion of family detention. It explains anthropological and sociological studies of the economy to elaborate a nuanced approach to political economies of enforcement. Legally defined discretion over immigration enforcement is a critical legal technology of government for immigration agencies in the United States, and crucial to enabling the fast growth of outsourced immigration and border enforcement.
