The Privatization of Border Security

This project examined the privatization of border security, its implications for immigration policy reform, effects on local communities, and issues of corporate accountability. Click the read more button for more info on this past program.

Contact:   Lincoln Fellow Roxanne Doty, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It focuses on three aspects of border security privatization; (1) private detention facilities, (2) transport of apprehended migrants, and (3) surveillance. The privatization of security practices previously regarded as core functions of the state is an important aspect of the broader reconfiguration of the public/private relationship. It raises significant ethical concerns pertaining to privatization’s implications for immigration reform and for the protection of the rights of detained migrants. The reconfiguration of the public/private relationship is fraught with ethical implications, particularly when such reconfiguration may have implications for policy reforms pertaining to the contemporary immigration crisis. The goals and interests of the contracting parties (Department of Homeland Security), the private corporations involved, and the migrants themselves are potentially at odds with one another. It is important to investigate the influence of corporations in decisions to build private facilities as well as any potential influence on policy makers in crafting and passing immigration related legislation. There are several avenues through which the results of the study will be communicated including presentations at national conferences, the publication of at least one academic journal article, and one book length manuscript of interest to scholarly audiences but also accessible to the general reading public.