New challenges to cross-border life in Juárez-El Paso in the context of authoritarian neoliberalism

The United States is currently undergoing a demographic shift marked by the sustained growth of the Latino population, while the aging and decline of the white population coincide with the emergence of “demographobia”. This phenomenon has generated controversy and prompted actions aimed at restoring the American status quo, leading to restrictions on human rights, social movements, migratory processes, and human mobility. These restrictions are accompanied by a contradictory populist rhetoric that seeks to impede the movement of people, yet does not hinder the circulation of corporations and commodities. The purpose of this article is to analyze the cross-border everyday life of the population in the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso region during the covid-19 pandemic, through the interpretation of statistical data and a descriptive analysis of the concept of authoritarian neoliberalism. This approach enables the identification of various actions and discursive forms that have emerged in parallel with the political rise of the new right-wing nationalism in the United States —one marked by overt racism, xenophobia, and the implementation of new border security mechanisms through legal and administrative measures. These provisions have restricted mobility between the two regions; however, rather than diminishing, cross-border practices have tended to strengthen, grounded in the customs and social ties that sustain everyday life along the border.