America’s Medicalized Borders: Past, Present, and Possible Future

October 4, 2024

With the US/Mexico border emerging as a political flashpoint, this recent essay by Berkeley Center for Social Medicine faculty affiliate Carlos Martinez is especially relevant. Martinez reflects on the past and present manifestations of “border medicalization”—the process by which immigrants are stigmatized and treated as bearers of dangerous diseases— in recognizing and resisting its new and emerging forms.