Enforcing Order on the Border

<p>As a lifelong resident of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands Eric Gamino has always been curious why some U.S.-born Latinos were indifferent toward Latino immigrants especially since both groups lived within the same majority Latino-origin community--the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (RGV). <i>Enforcing Order on the Border </i>offers a personal ethnographic examination of Gamino's life as a resident of the RGV coupled with his experience as a police officer for two different police departments in the region. Gamino reveals how the concept of race functions within a predominantly Latino-origin community. <p/>Gamino unpacks the interplay between local police federal immigration officials and civilians as they encounter immigration. <i>Enforcing Order on the Border </i>illustrates how institutional practices such as immigration enforcement occur on the South Texas-Mexico borderlands as collaborative eff orts between local police and the U.S. Border Patrol from an institutional perspective. Consequently this collaborative eff ort in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands creates a distinctive method of policing which he tellingly refers to as constitution-free policing. Gamino provides a unique perspective on how the concept of race in a predominantly Latino-origin community complicates intraracial/intraethnic relations on the South Texas-Mexico borderlands.</p>