Escape from the Criminal State: Mapping the Transnational Governance of Forced Migration from Northern Central America to the United States

This grant is funded in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
In the last decade, the expansion of border enforcement into Mexico has intensified Central Americans’ vulnerability to corrupt law enforcement and criminal organizations. Geographer Anthony Fontes will examine how different forms of criminal governance—criminals acting like states and states acting like criminals—in Northern Central America, Mexico, and the U.S. influence reasons for migration and shapes migration experiences. He will conduct interviews and participant observation for his study.