Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border

283 Pages·2002·3.437 MB·English

by  Eithne Luibhéid

Entry Denied
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Entry Denied
Controlling Sexuality at the Border
Eithne Luibhéid
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis / London
Chapter 4 was originally published as “Looking Like a Lesbian:The Organization of
Sexual Monitoring at the U.S.–Mexico Border,”Journal ofthe History ofSexuality8,
no.3 (1998):477–506.Copyright 1998by the University ofTexas Press.All rights
reserved.
Copyright 2002 by the Regents ofthe University ofMinnesota
All rights reserved.No part ofthis publication may be reproduced,stored in a
retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,electronic,mechani-
cal,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,without the prior written permission of
the publisher.
Published by the University ofMinnesota Press
111Third Avenue South,Suite 290
Minneapolis,MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Luibhéid,Eithne.
Entry denied :controlling sexuality at the border / Eithne Luibhéid.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8166-3803-9 (HC :alk.paper) — ISBN 0-8166-3804-7 (PB :alk.paper)
1.Women immigrants—Government policy—United States—History.
2.United States—Emigration and immigration—Government policy—History.
3.Sex and law—United States—History. I.Title.
JV6602 .L85 2002
325.73'082—dc21
2002006067
Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper
The University ofMinnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.

121 11 00 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 2 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
Power and Sexuality at the Border
1. Entry Denied 1
A History of U.S. Immigration Control
2. A Blueprint for Exclusion 31
The Page Law,Prostitution,and Discrimination
against Chinese Women
3. Birthing a Nation 55
Race,Ethnicity,and Childbearing
4. Looking Like a Lesbian 77
Sexual Monitoring at the U.S.–Mexico Border
5. Rape,Asylum,and the U.S. Border Patrol 103
Conclusion 137
Sexuality,Immigration,and Resistance
Appendix 147
Sexuality Considerations in
the Refugee/Asylum System
Notes 159
Index 239
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Acknowledgments
This work could not have been completed without generous support
from many individuals.I am enormously grateful for the encouragement
and critical feedback of my distinguished Ph.D.dissertation committee
at the University of California,Berkeley:Elaine H. Kim,David Lloyd,
Judith Butler,and Michael Omi.Thanks to Jean Molesky Poz,who intro-
duced me to immigration scholarship and taught me what collegiality
means.Thanks to the four fabulous divas with whom I participated in a
dissertation-writing support group:Nerissa Balce Cortes,Susan Lee,
Sandra Liu,and Caroline Streeter.Thanks to other Berkeley Ethnic Stud-
ies colleagues,especially Grace Chang,Arlene R.Keizer,Jasbir Puar,and
Isabelle Thuy Pelaud,for continual friendship,intellectual support,and
practical assistance.Obeisance to Leslie Minot,who introduced me to
the literature on prostitution,roundly debated Foucault over tea,and of-
fered valuable comments on several chapters.Thanks to members ofthe
Interdisciplinary Queer Studies Research Group at the Humanities Re-
search Institute at the University of California,Irvine:Robyn Wiegman,
Madelyn Detloff,Carla Freccero,David Gere,George Haggerty,Lisa Rofel,
Nayan Shah,and Sandy Stone.The book substantially benefited from en-
gagement with the group.
At Bowling Green State University,I profited from the friendship and
assistance of many talented faculty.Special thanks to Vicki Patraka,who
made sure that the dissertation actually became a book rather than be-

coming consigned to the closet.Thanks to the Faculty Writing Group at
the Institute for the Study ofSociety and Culture,especially Rachel Buff,
Rob Buffington,Radhika Gajjala,Liette Gidlow,Hai Ren,and Val Rohy,
vii
viii Acknowledgments
who generously read and carefully commented on drafts ofvarious chap-
ters.Thanks also to the faculty of the Ethnic Studies department,par-
ticularly Michael Martin and David Wall,for their support of this proj-
ect.Phil Terrie graciously commented on a chapter and draft revisions.
Taeyon Kim and Julia Mason provided meticulous and thoughtful re-
search assistance.Rachel Gustwiller kindly retyped the appendix after the
computer ate it.
Many thanks to Martin F.Manalansan IV and Roger Rouse,whose re-
vision suggestions significantly enhanced the manuscript.Thanks also to
the University of Minnesota Press’s editorial and marketing staff,espe-
cially Carrie Mullen,for superb assistance at every stage of the process.
Many activists and organizers generously provided vital information
for the project.They include Sydney Levy and Dusty Aráujo ofthe Inter-
national Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in San Francisco;
Cathi Tactaquin,José Palafox,and Sasha Khokha of the National Net-
work for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in Oakland; and Shannon
Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco.Civil
rights lawyer Albert Armendáriz shared his files about Sara Harb Quiroz’s
case.Jesus Romo,who also labors on the side of justice,provided infor-
mation about Blanca Bernal’s case. Roberto Martínez,director of the
U.S./Mexico Border Program ofthe American Friends Service Commit-
tee,generously shared news clippings and information about rape at the
border.Nancy Kelly of Greater Boston Legal Services made time to an-
swer my questions about refugee and asylum law.Professor Carolyn
(Patty) Blum and Colleen Coughlin patiently explained aspects ofimmi-
gration law.Heartfelt thanks for your support and inspiring examples of
activism.
Thanks to the Boston foreign lesbians who told me to write “our
story”—you know who you are.Huge thanks to Sylvia Organ for making
sure that I stayed in school and did my homework;there would be no de-
grees without you.Thanks to Nina Payne for introducing me to the craft
ofwriting.Thanks to Berni Smyth for wonderful editorial assistance and
the usual insouciance.Thanks to Allison Heather and Joe McInerney for
continual support and wackiness. Thanks to the many people whose
fierce dreams and everyday acts to create a different world made this
work possible.Buíochas le mo chroíR.H.for rich intellectual and emo-
tional companionship during the book’s final stages and beyond.

The research was partly funded by a Chancellor’s Dissertation Year
Fellowship and two Vice-Chancellor for Research Awards from the Uni-
versity ofCalifornia,Berkeley.
Introduction
Power and Sexuality at the Border
I once lectured to an undergraduate class about how the United States
excluded lesbian and gay immigrants until ,and a student inquired,
“How would the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) know if
someone was gay,anyway?”The question could have been the expression
of a democratic belief that there was nothing particularly distinctive
about lesbians and gay men. But it could equally have been a homo-
phobic query,implying that the INS could not know ifsomeone was les-
bian or gay unlessthe individual revealed the fact—flaunted it,as the ho-
mophobes like to say.In that case,following the (il)logic ofhomophobia,
it was the individual’s own fault for being excluded.Ifs/he had been less
militant about proclaiming identity,s/he would not have been excluded.1
I did not know which meaning the student intended.But as I later re-
flected on the question, it came to mark for me how dominant groups
and institutions construct the intelligibility oflesbian,gay,and other mi-
noritized lives in specific ways but then deny their own implication in so-
cial inequalities.2 For it was not lesbians and gay men who initially
sought to be recognized by the immigration service.On the contrary,it
was the immigration service that sought, in sometimes bizarre and
frightening ways,to identify and penalize lesbians and gay men who tried
to enter the country.The fact that the immigration service initiated these
efforts is deeply revealing ofhow sanctioned sexualities become consoli-
dated by delineating and penalizing categories of“others.”In this sense,

lesbian and gay exclusion is less the history ofa minor group than ofself-
constituting actions by the powerful who then erase the traces of their
own production while stigmatizing and policing others.But “How would
ix