The Minuteman Project is a national civilian border patrol group, founded in 2005 to defend the U.S.-Mexico border from "invasion" by illegal immigrants and protest the "blatant disregard of the rule of law" exhibited by government and politicians. This study explores one state chapter of this organization: the Utah Minuteman Project (UMP). The research questions I seek to address are: Who are the Minutemen? What motivates them? How do the Minutemen define what it means to be an American? Using a grounded theory approach, I explore the construction of American identity among the members of the UMP using a range of qualitative data sources: in-depth interviews with 24 individuals, fieldnotes, and primary documents. My findings suggest that what problematizes illegal immigration in the minds of the Minutemen is their view that illegal immigration is a threat to American identity. While illegal immigration and its perceived consequences are the focus of much attention within the UMP, the central motivating factor in the movement relates to the question of who is an American. My findings suggest that American identity, as defined by the Minutemen, can be understood in terms of four main concepts: assimilation, respect for law, work ethic, and patriotism. In many ways, the Minutemen have defined American identity by answering the question of who is not an American. It is against the backdrop of illegal immigration that anti-illegal immigrant movements like the Minutemen have defined themselves, defined America, and defined who is an American. By emphasizing the elements of American identity that stand in most striking contrast to illegal immigration, they exclude undocumented immigrants from American identity. Amidst all the voices seeking to define what it means to be an American, this study contributes another voice and provides a better understanding of how the Minutemen see the world. It is important to that as our country confronts the challenges of immigration reform and answers the question of who is an American, that all voices are heard, including the voices of the Minutemen.

The aim of this study is to analyse the security implications of refugee flows to South Africa. The country is reputed to host the largest number of refugees and asylum seekers in the world and is also the foremost refugee destination of choice on the African continent. It therefore becomes pertinent that a consideration of the security implications is necessary in this age of global migration. The dissertation is based on three main assumptions to be investigated and tested, namely: > The main causes of refugee flows to South Africa reside in a number of push-factors in the sending countries, but also in a number of pull-factors in South Africa. > The security implications of refugee flows to South Africa are exacerbated by a number of political, socio-economic and administrative issues in South Africa. > Although concern over some of the security issues relating to refugee flows to South Africa have been officially expressed, policy responses have been ambiguous. The study is undertaken against the background of the concept of national security, specifically in developing countries. It is within these parameters that the security implications of refugees in South Arica are analysed, especially from the perspective of political, economic, social and environmental dimensions. The study mainly focuses on the period 1994 to 2010, as it is within this period that major developments regarding refugee issues in South Africa occurred. / Dissertation (MSecurity Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Political Sciences / Unrestricted

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Robert K. Schaeffer / In a 2005 op-ed piece, Wall St. Journal columnist Peggy Noonan queried, "What does it mean that your first act on entering a country is breaking its laws?" Unauthorized noncitizen populations have increased rapidly, from 3 million in 1990 to over 11 million in 2009. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Minuteman Project and the Tea Party generated renewed interest in restrictionist social movements (RSMs). Sociological social movement theories focused primarily on oppressed populations rather than privileged groups, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of right-wing movements. This dissertation‘s main question is: how did contemporary restrictionists frame their anti-immigrant principles, practices, and policies in the post-9/11 period? In turn, what comprise the social and political consequences of such strategies? This study argues that the "new" restrictionists successfully framed issues relating to unauthorized noncitizens concerning the cultural, economic, and security risks they posed to the United States. Fifty members from a diverse set of voluntary organizations were interviewed, including the Minuteman Project, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and the American GI Forum (AGIF). Grounded theory methodology was used to create initial codes, which were then connected with themes derived from the literature. This study finds that grassroots, right-wing RSMs brought attention to contentious noncitizen issues that spurred debate and action within both Democratic and Republicans parties, public discourse, and social policy from after 9/11 to 2012. The success of the 2005 Minuteman Project border patrol demonstrated that the federal government lacked the political will to control the U.S.–Mexico border. This dissertation adds to the social movement literature demonstrating that both classical and solidarity theories of social movements help explain how restrictionists framed unauthorized noncitizen issues. Ultimately, this study finds RSMs represent a right-wing mobilization (rather than conservative) because of their singling out of Mexican unauthorized noncitizens, extra-institutional action on the border, the use of inflammatory rhetoric, and anti-Catholic sentiment, which contributed in pushing the Republican Party further to the right.

Le sujet de la thèse que nous traitons depuis deux ans porte sur «l'immigration illégale et la sécurité intérieure en France et au Qatar». Notre ambition est de faire une étude comparative analytique et critique de l'état actuel de l'immigration clandestine dans deux pays nantis : la France un pays européen appliquant des mesures juridiques et administratives européennes du Schengen et le Qatar, un pays du golfe, agissant à son tour dans le cadre d'accords juridiques et administratifs signés avec ses voisins du golfe. Notre champ d’exploration nous semble prometteur et intéressant car nous porterons aujourd'hui notre attention sur les aspects et les impacts actuels de l'immigration clandestine dans les deux pays. Ainsi, nous énonçons comme suit la question générale qui nous permettra de contextualiser notre thème de recherche et de circonscrire notre problématique. Quelles solutions et dispositifs juridiquement irréprochables et défendables mais pragmatiques réalistes et applicables concernant l'immigration clandestine peut-on envisager et mettre en train aujourd'hui et dans un avenir proche ? Le plan de notre thèse est divisé en deux parties : Dans la première partie, intitulée «l'immigration illégale et l'organisation du système de la sécurité intérieure en France et Qatar», nous avons passé en revue l'historique de l'immigration dans les deux pays afin de délimiter les nuances historiques propres à chacun des deux pays. Cette analyse historique, en effet, nous a aidé à mieux cerner l'état actuel de l’immigration illégale en France et du Qatar. Ensuite, nous avons mené une recherche approfondie pour démontrer la spécifié de l'immigration illégale dans chacun des deux pays. Dans la deuxième partie, intitulée «les impacts de l'immigration illégale sur la sécurité intérieure en France et du Qatar, et la diversité des instruments de lutte contre ce phénomène», nous avons analysé les conséquences engendrées par l'immigration légale et illégale en France et du Qatar. L'intérêt de notre recherche, c'est de montrer que le paramètre sécuritaire est aujourd'hui prioritaire dans toute réflexion ou remède concernant le phénomène de l'immigration clandestine. Ainsi le lien entre immigration clandestine et terrorisme nous semble aujourd'hui pertinent. Les derniers attentats en France, en Belgique et en Tunisie ont montré que Daech embrigade aujourd'hui aussi bien des immigrés clandestins venant de Lybie et de Syrie, des terroristes infiltrés lors des dernières vagues migratoire syrienne en Europe, que des jeunes immigrés en Europe et en situation régulière issus de la seconde génération. Notre propos est de montrer comment les pratiques juridiques et les systèmes de sécurité en France et au Qatar doivent s'adapter à la nouvelle situation géopolitique susmentionnée à l'échelle régionale et internationale. [...] / The subject of the thesis we have been dealing with for two years is "Illegal immigration and internal security in France and Qatar". Our ambition is to make a comparative and critical comparative study of the current state of illegal immigration in two rich countries : France a European country applying European legal and administrative measures of Schengen and Qatar, a country of the Gulf, acting in turn in the framework of legal and administrative agreements signed with its neighbors in the Gulf. Our field of exploration seems promising and interesting because today we will focus on the current aspects and impacts of illegal immigration in both countries. Thus, we state as follows the general question that will enable us to contextualise our research theme and circumscribe our problematic : What legal and irreproachable and defensible but pragmatic and feasible solutions and arrangements for illegal immigration can be considered and put into action now and in the near future ? The plan of our thesis is divided into two parts : ln the first part, entitled "Illegal immigration and the organization of the system of internal security in France and Qatar", we reviewed the history of immigration in both countries to delineate the historical nuances of each country. This historical analysis has, in fact, helped us to better understand the current state of illegal immigration in France and Qatar. Then we conducted a thorough research to demonstrate the specified illegal immigration in each of the two countries. ln the second part, entitled "the impacts of illegal immigration on internal security in France and Qatar, and the diversity of instruments to combat this phenomenon", we analyzed the consequences of legal and illegal immigration in France and Qatar.

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of Sino-U.S. governmental law enforcement cooperation to combat human smuggling. A history of bilateral law enforcement cooperation against human smuggling is presented, with emphasis given to the period since 1993. U.S. immigration statistics, along with statistics from the U.S. Coast Guard, are presented as a measure of the success of law enforcement efforts. In the analysis that follows, identification is made of factors that seem to have hindered and obstructed, or promoted and advanced Sino-U.S. law enforcement cooperation. This study finds that sudden shifts in the macroclimate of Sino-U.S. relations may positively or adversely affect cooperation on law enforcement matters, including human smuggling. In the current case, bilateral cooperation against human smuggling has been advanced by spillover effects of convergent Sino-U.S. counterterrorism interests that occurred in the wake of September 11. Next, it is found that the creation of formal bilateral institutions for law enforcement cooperation since 1997 has facilitated improved effectiveness in Sino-U.S. work against human smuggling.. Finally, this study finds that the effectiveness of bilateral law enforcement cooperation against human smuggling has been substantially undermined by the inability of the two sides to maintain an effective repatriation-based deterrent against human smuggling.

This thesis examines the federal government’s progression in implementing the Secure Communities program. The Secure Communities program was initiated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2008 as a pilot program in only fourteen jurisdictions nation-wide. As of the writing of this thesis, four years following the initiation of the program, S-Comm. has been implemented in over 1700 jurisdictions nation-wide and it is set to be implemented in all local jurisdictions nationally by the end of 2013 (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2012). Although local law enforcement agencies had long shared the fingerprints of those they arrested with the FBI, the FBI now forwards this information to the DHS through S-Comm. who then checks the fingerprints against the Automated Biometric Identification System known as IDENT—a fingerprint database containing information on over 91 million individuals, including travelers, applicants for immigration benefits, and immigrants who have previously violated immigration laws. ICE then supposedly reviews their records to see if the person arrested is deportable. If they believe they are, or want to further interrogate them, ICE will issue a detainer. The detainer is a request to the local police to inform federal immigration authorities when the arrestee will be released from custody and to hold the individual for up to two days for transfer to ICE (The Chief Justice, 2011). This process is considered to be the most advanced form of file sharing between local authorities and federal immigration authorities yet. The focus of this endeavor is to evaluate whether this program has been effective in doing as its title maintains. If this program is one that the American people, documented or not, have to endure then it is important that we ask: has Secure Communities made American communities safer? Recent data collected on the program, reports of mass opposition to the initiative by local law enforcement officials throughout the country, and numerous personal accounts of discriminatory harassment of mostly Spanish-speaking Americans by federal immigration agents and state and local law enforcement officials participating in Secure Communities collectively demonstrate that this program has failed in making American communities more secure. / text

abstract: At its core, this dissertation is a study of how one group of ordinary people attempted to make change in their local and national community by reframing a public debate. Since 1993, over five thousand undocumented migrants have died, mostly of dehydration, while attempting to cross the US/Mexico border. Volunteers for No More Deaths (NMD), a humanitarian group in Tucson, hike the remote desert trails of the southern Arizona desert and provide food, water, and first aid to undocumented migrants in medical distress. They believe that their actions reduce suffering and deaths in the desert. On December 4, 2008, Walt Staton, a NMD volunteer placed multiple one-gallon jugs of water on a known migrant trail, and a Fish and Wildlife officer on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge near Arivaca, Arizona cited him for littering. Staton refused to pay the fine, believing that he was providing life-saving humanitarian aid, and was taken to court as a result. His trial from June 1-3, 2009 is the main focus of this dissertation. The dissertation begins by tracing the history of the rhetorical marker "illegal" and its role in the deaths of thousands of "illegal" immigrants. Then, it outlines the history of NMD, from its roots in the Sanctuary Movement to its current operation as a counterpublic discursively subverting the state. Next, it examines Staton's trial as a postmodern rhetorical situation, where subjects negotiate their rhetorical agency with the state. Finally, it measures the rhetorical effect of NMD's actions by tracing humanitarian and human rights ideographs in online discussion boards before and after Staton's sentencing. The study finds that despite situational restrictions, as the postmodern critique suggests, subjects are still able to identify and engage with rhetorical opportunities, and in doing so can still subvert the state. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2011

abstract: A perceived link between illegal immigration and crime continues to exist. Citizens continue to believe that immigration creates crime and fear that as the immigrant population grows, their safety is jeopardized. Not much research in the field of criminology, however, has focused on examining this perceived relationship between immigration and crime. Those studies which have examined the relationship have mainly relied on official data to conduct their analysis. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between immigration and crime by examining self report data as well as some official data on immigration status and criminal involvement. More specifically, this thesis examines the relationship between immigration status and four different types of criminal involvement; property crimes, violent crimes, drug sales, and drug use. Data from a sample of 1,990 arrestees in the Maricopa County, Arizona, was used to conduct this analysis. This data was collected through the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network over the course of a year. The results of the logistic regression models indicate that immigrants tend to commit less crime than U.S. citizens. Furthermore, illegal immigrants are significantly less likely than U.S. citizens to commit any of the four types of crimes, with the exception of powder cocaine use. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Criminology and Criminal Justice 2011

A imigração aos Estados Unidos se tornou um dos maiores fenômenos globais durante o sécu-lo XX. Alguns fatores, entretanto, estariam indicando que, especialmente a partir da crise e-conômica de 2008, os fluxos migratórios ao país norte-americano poderiam estar diminuindo. Este trabalho busca analisar tal movimento recente de imigração aos Estados Unidos à luz do histórico das políticas migratórias adotadas no país, partindo da hipótese de que a aparente redução da imigração aos Estados Unidos se trata de uma questão temporária. Inicialmente, é examinado o histórico da imigração aos Estados Unidos desde os primeiros imigrantes do país até a década de 1970, em que são abordados os principais acontecimentos históricos desta fase e sua influência na imigração, com destaque às políticas migratórias adotadas no período. A seguir, analisa-se a maneira como os índices migratórios se elevaram fortemente ao final do século XX. São debatidos os motivos que levaram a este aumento e a forma como os Estados Unidos lidaram com a questão. Por fim, o trabalho aborda alguns fatores da década de 2000 que poderiam estar causando uma redução nos índices migratórios aos Estados Unidos. São eles a crise econômica de 2008; o aumento da segurança da fronteira americana com o Méxi-co; as políticas migratórias do final dos anos 2000 (com destaque à proposta da reforma do sistema migratório de Barack Obama e a lei SB 1070 do estado americano do Arizona); e as condições internas de alguns dos países de origem dos migrantes (México, América Central e Caribe, Brasil e alguns países asiáticos) e a maneira como elas afetam a imigração de nacio-nais destes países aos Estados Unidos. A análise realizada aponta que, embora tenha havido uma redução dos índices migratórios em comparação aos anos 1990, a leve tendência de que-da apresentada ao final da década de 2000 não configura um movimento permanente, mas, sim, insere-se na tradição da imigração aos Estados Unidos de apresentar diferentes fluxos de crescimento e queda ao longo de sua história. / Immigration to the United States became a major global phenomena during the twentieth cen-tury. Some factors, however, could be indicating that, especially since the 2008 economic crisis, migration flows to the North American country could be slowing. This paper analyses this recent flow of immigration to the United States in light of the history of immigration pol-icies adopted in the country, based on the assumption that the apparent reduction in immigra-tion to the United States is a temporary issue. Initially, we analyze the history of immigration to the Unites States since the country's first immigrants until the 1970s, in which we focus on the main historical events of this phase and its influence on immigration, especially migration policies adopted in this period. Next, we analyze how migration flows rose sharply at the end of the twentieth century. We debate the reasons that took to this increase and the way the United States dealt with the subject. Finally, we discuss some factors of the 2000s which could be causing a reduction in the immigration rates in the United States. They are the 2008 economic crisis; the enforcement in the security of the American border with Mexico; the migration policies of the late 2000s (particularly Barack Obama's proposed migration system reform and the SB 1070 law of the U. S. state of Arizona); and the internal condition of some of the migrants' countries of origin (Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, Brazil and some Asian countries) and the way they affect immigration from nationals of these countries to the United States. The analysis indicates that, though there has been a reduction in migra-tion flows compared to the 1990s, the slight downward trend shown by the end of the 2000s does not configure a permanent process, but rather is part of the tradition of immigration to the United States to present different flows of rises and falls of migrations throughout its his-tory.

A imigração aos Estados Unidos se tornou um dos maiores fenômenos globais durante o sécu-lo XX. Alguns fatores, entretanto, estariam indicando que, especialmente a partir da crise e-conômica de 2008, os fluxos migratórios ao país norte-americano poderiam estar diminuindo. Este trabalho busca analisar tal movimento recente de imigração aos Estados Unidos à luz do histórico das políticas migratórias adotadas no país, partindo da hipótese de que a aparente redução da imigração aos Estados Unidos se trata de uma questão temporária. Inicialmente, é examinado o histórico da imigração aos Estados Unidos desde os primeiros imigrantes do país até a década de 1970, em que são abordados os principais acontecimentos históricos desta fase e sua influência na imigração, com destaque às políticas migratórias adotadas no período. A seguir, analisa-se a maneira como os índices migratórios se elevaram fortemente ao final do século XX. São debatidos os motivos que levaram a este aumento e a forma como os Estados Unidos lidaram com a questão. Por fim, o trabalho aborda alguns fatores da década de 2000 que poderiam estar causando uma redução nos índices migratórios aos Estados Unidos. São eles a crise econômica de 2008; o aumento da segurança da fronteira americana com o Méxi-co; as políticas migratórias do final dos anos 2000 (com destaque à proposta da reforma do sistema migratório de Barack Obama e a lei SB 1070 do estado americano do Arizona); e as condições internas de alguns dos países de origem dos migrantes (México, América Central e Caribe, Brasil e alguns países asiáticos) e a maneira como elas afetam a imigração de nacio-nais destes países aos Estados Unidos. A análise realizada aponta que, embora tenha havido uma redução dos índices migratórios em comparação aos anos 1990, a leve tendência de que-da apresentada ao final da década de 2000 não configura um movimento permanente, mas, sim, insere-se na tradição da imigração aos Estados Unidos de apresentar diferentes fluxos de crescimento e queda ao longo de sua história. / Immigration to the United States became a major global phenomena during the twentieth cen-tury. Some factors, however, could be indicating that, especially since the 2008 economic crisis, migration flows to the North American country could be slowing. This paper analyses this recent flow of immigration to the United States in light of the history of immigration pol-icies adopted in the country, based on the assumption that the apparent reduction in immigra-tion to the United States is a temporary issue. Initially, we analyze the history of immigration to the Unites States since the country's first immigrants until the 1970s, in which we focus on the main historical events of this phase and its influence on immigration, especially migration policies adopted in this period. Next, we analyze how migration flows rose sharply at the end of the twentieth century. We debate the reasons that took to this increase and the way the United States dealt with the subject. Finally, we discuss some factors of the 2000s which could be causing a reduction in the immigration rates in the United States. They are the 2008 economic crisis; the enforcement in the security of the American border with Mexico; the migration policies of the late 2000s (particularly Barack Obama's proposed migration system reform and the SB 1070 law of the U. S. state of Arizona); and the internal condition of some of the migrants' countries of origin (Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, Brazil and some Asian countries) and the way they affect immigration from nationals of these countries to the United States. The analysis indicates that, though there has been a reduction in migra-tion flows compared to the 1990s, the slight downward trend shown by the end of the 2000s does not configure a permanent process, but rather is part of the tradition of immigration to the United States to present different flows of rises and falls of migrations throughout its his-tory.