The state of exception and the imperial way of life in the United States—Mexico borderlands

This paper situates recent events in the US–Mexico borderlands in relation to modalities of power used in the expansion of US imperial hegemony. Specifically, I link acts of legal suspension to expedite construction of border barriers on the US southern border with genealogies of imperial dispossession and racial violence to build an argument about imperialism as a way of life in the US. In so doing, my goal is to support ongoing efforts to forge coalitions better able to contest legal suspension as a predominant technique of government.