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This article uses an interpretive phenomenological approach to examine the deployment (and perception) of fear in the US-Mexico border region. This region is currently perceived by "others" to be under siege by drugtrafficking organizations, terrorists and undocumented immigrants. However, the inhabitants of this region experience a vastly different reality that is far-removed from the rhetoric of fear often used by politicians to identify and define the inhabitants. In many instances, the effects of border violence are exaggerated in ways that benefit political and corporate interests; moreover, this specific tactic operates to squeeze and constrain efforts aimed at civic engagement and public input in policies. We expose perceptions and misperceptions on issues related to fear, and explain the ways in which fear can be expropriated as a social construct that prevents meaningful political dialogue.

from crossing the midpoints of bridges by Customs and Border Protection agents, crossed the Rio Grande to ask for asylum, were denied, and forced to cross at places deemed illegal by law. This resulted in misdemeanor violations for unlawful entry and fleeing immigration checkpoints. The policy initiative centered on the separation of children from their migrant parents-refugees fleeing from the northern triangle countries: El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Adult migrants were sent to prisons and holding facilities, brought before a magistrate to plead guilty, and were deported while their children were placed in government-funded privately-owned detention centers. Migrants contend with a security apparatus comprised of border walls, zones of surveillance, agents, and paramilitary troops. This article analyzes the United States (in)security system using Baudrillard's concept of simulacrum supplemented by Foucault's dispositif and Agamben's apparatuses.

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates possibilities for creating states of exception while simultaneously destabilizing the Mexico-U.S. border through the politics of fear.Specifically, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP), COVID-19 CAPIO, Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACA), and Title 42-using the pandemic under an arcane section of U.S. law to immediately expel asylum seekers and refugees, in particularhighlight the formation of a state of exception consistent with the work of Agamben. They also document how the politics of fear is used to reinforce hegemonic narratives targeting asylum seekers while attempting to reinforce political agendas that lean toward a specific brand of nationalism using the lens of public health as a context. The U.S. government under the Trump administration, and the Biden administration to a lesser extent, constructed these policies aimed primarily at refugees and asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, thereby violating laws and international treaty obligations.