Mexico and

the United States exist in a symbiotic relationship: Mexico frequently provides

the United States with cheap labor, illegal goods, and, for criminal offenders,

a refuge from the law. In turn, the U.S. offers Mexican laborers the American

dream: the possibility of a better livelihood through hard work. To supply each

other’s demands, Americans and Mexicans have to cross their shared border from

both sides. Despite this relationship, U.S. immigration reform debates tend to

be security-focused and center on the idea of menacing

Mexicans heading north to steal abundant American resources. Further, Congress

tends to approach reform unilaterally, without engaging with Mexico or other

feeder countries, and, disturbingly, without acknowledging problematic southern

crossings that Americans routinely make into Mexico.

In Run for the Border, Steven W. Bender

offers a framework for a more comprehensive border policy through a historical

analysis of border crossings, both Mexico to U.S. and U.S. to Mexico. In contrast

to recent reform proposals, this book urges reform as the product of

negotiation and implementation by cross-border accord; reform that honors the

shared economic and cultural legacy of the U.S. and Mexico. Covering everything

from the history of Anglo crossings into Mexico to escape law authorities, to

vice tourism and retirement in Mexico, to today’s focus on Mexican

border-crossing immigrants and drug traffickers, Bender takes lessons from the

past 150 years to argue for more explicit and compassionate cross-border

cooperation.

Steeped in

several disciplines, Run for the Border

is a blend of historical, cultural, and legal perspectives, as well as those

from literature and cinema, that reflect Bender’s cultural background and legal

expertise.