While many actors and conditions contribute to the problems at the border, one set of actors has been unexplainably missing from the literature and policy analysis: border vigilantes. These vigilantes have painted the border as a dangerous locus of criminal and terrorist activity, necessitating concerned citizen sentinels. They have blitzed the public with portrayals about the number of migrants crossing the border illegally and the need for law enforcement to increase border protection. Their message is powerful because they back their rhetoric with action: these individuals camp out near popular desert border-crossing points, document the rate of undocumented migration, and even turn away and/or turn in migrants to the U.S. Border Patrol and local law enforcement. Border vigilantes claim to do the work that the government is unwilling, or at least unable, to do effectively: protect America from the security threats of a permeable border and preserve the rule of law.In this paper, border vigilantism is put under the microscope. Part I explores the history and current state of the border and the role of vigilantes in promoting border reform and preventing undocumented migrants from entering the United States. Part II looks at the legal rights that vigilantes have when conducting their military-like operations at the border - in particular, the rights they have to detain migrants under state citizen's arrest laws. These laws are particularly important in light of current comprehensive immigration reform proposals; i.e., an inadvertent byproduct of criminalizing border-crossing and illegal presence, as Part II details, is that such criminalization would open the floodgates for vigilantes to arrest any border crossers under any circumstances. Part III proposes reforms - including both legislative approaches and private initiatives - to balance the border vigilantes' expressive rights with the American value to treat others with dignity.

Seeking to re-imagine the meaning and significance of the international border, Opening the Floodgates makes a case for eliminating the border as a legal construct that impedes the movement of people into this country. Open migration policies deserve fuller analysis, as evidenced by President Barack Obama’s pledge to make immigration reform a priority. Kevin R. Johnson offers an alternative vision of how U.S. borders might be reconfigured, grounded in moral, economic, and policy arguments for open borders. Importantly, liberalizing migration through an open borders policy would recognize that the enforcement of closed borders cannot stifle the strong, perhaps irresistible, economic, social, and political pressures that fuel international migration. Controversially, Johnson suggests that open borders are entirely consistent with efforts to prevent terrorism that have dominated immigration enforcement since the events of September 11, 2001. More liberal migration, he suggests, would allow for full attention to be paid to the true dangers to public safety and national security.

This second edition is an update of the intersection of border security, immigration, and assimilation in the U.S.A. In addition to the history of immigration and custom services and shifts in attitudes about immigration, this edition provides new information about the operations of the Department of Homeland Security to secure the border. A new chapter examines developments in immigration policy relating to the border wall, family separation, unaccompanied immigrant minors and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. The book includes real-life stories of difficult incidents that arise due to the complicated relationship between immigration and border security. The authors review prospects for comprehensive immigration policy and border security policy.