Subverting Internal Bordering Practices

Drawing on the scholarly analysis of internal bordering practices employed to exclude, police, and criminalize unauthorized migrants, this chapter documents the illegalization of migrants from Central American countries in Mexico. We demonstrate that the legal provisions put in place in Mexico to regularize the status of migrants are based on criteria of deservingness that disadvantage most Central American migrants. Furthermore, prohibitive costs, complex administrative requirements, and poorly executed regularization programs preclude many migrants from attempting to obtain or renew legal status in Mexico. Inspired by scholarship in autonomy of migration and critical citizenship studies, this chapter also demonstrates that migrants denied entry or secure status often find ways to contest and subvert exclusions, overcome restrictions, and, subsequently, cross internal borders that deny them full membership. As we demonstrate in this chapter, many migrants resort to “creative” forms of legalization, such as securing substitute documents, purchasing fake documents, or falsely obtaining authentic documents. Regardless of the chosen strategy, the documents that migrants acquire provide them only temporary or insufficient relief from precarity. Despite being documented, most remain in precarious conditions characterized by insecurity and uncertainty. By highlighting the precariousness, insecurity and uncertainty of the status migrants obtain through alternative channels, we shed light on the lived experiences of what we call illegal legality and situate these experiences in the structural and institutional context we call exclusionary inclusion. This chapter is based on several projects conducted with migrants from Central America in Mexico since 2007.