A Brief Look at Legal Infrastructure and Its Implications for Migrants Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Abstract

Hadfield’sRules for a Flat World describes how today’s legal infrastructure harms people globally who live in the “Bottom of the Pyramid” (BoP). People who pass through the Kino Border Initiative on the U.S.-Mexico border provide vivid and personal examples of how lack of robust legal infrastructure contributes to acute insecurity in terms of economic well-being and personal safety in parts of Mexico and Central America. The legal infrastructure around immigration and deportation in the U.S. poses additional perils for migrants. Efforts to empower people in the BoP to play a role in legal infrastructure play a critical role in addressing the root causes of migration while respecting their human rights.